DK 

2.1 
&34 



1 . :• . . 
' ' ' ' \ 

y ', 

v., ■ 



NtfwmBE 







■ 



■ 



H 



C3R 

llw 




■uuyw HwfMHW wmntf 

»MWMMWHi IMnM^MIlWIlMMWTiWHTWlBlltflnMi 

IBM B»OMggWaiWMWBIIIllgMWiMiiiiwiMW>PW g W W. 'HlM 

«Vjrwus an«« ffl «MB 



■K 
MBS* 



v* r 



A 9 \ 












\ 






X 






V- 

\ 

I 



' 
























"S 
















-- 









A 












o 

■ 

■■'• 

\ 



> 




Tine Flag of Russia, 



A LITTLE JOURNEY 



TO 



RUSSIA 



Edited By 

MARIAN M. GEORGE 



CHICAGO 

A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 



[library of congress] 

Two Copies Received 

WAY 11 1904 

Copyright Entry 

I CLASS oc XXc. No. 

HO ^ 

COPY 6 



Copyright 1904 
By A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 



A Little Journey to 
Russia 



Russia is a country where the Ice King reigns 
half the year; where in winter the rivers freeze so deeply 
that railroads can be built on them and sledge roads 
are made the full length of their shining surface ; where 
the lakes are ploughed by huge steamers which in- 
stead of cutting the waves bore their way through the 
ice; where sleighs fly over the slippery streets for so 
many months of the year that when summer really 
comes the horses seem unable to slacken their speed, 
but tear along the road at the same mad pace, dragging 
the carriages after them. 

The thermometer shows so many degrees of cold 
in this country that one's nose may become frosted 
before he knows it and have to be rubbed with snow 
to save it from freezing. The rich bundle up in furs 
until the city streets look like an animal exhibit, while 
the poor do not take off their clothing even at bed- 
time, but lie down to sleep, on top of their immense 
brick stoves, with their sheepskin coats still on. 

For about eight months every year the Russians 
shiver in the darkness, for the sun rises very late in 
the morning — long after we Americans have gone to 
school — and it sets in mid-afternoon. Then summer 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



comes with scorching heat, and the sun takes to shin- 
ing all day and nearly all night. Snow and ice quickly 
disappear. A wealth of brilliant-hued flowers gives 

color to parks 
and moors, and 
tourists arriving 
at this season 
find it hard to 
believe all the 
tales they have 
heard of Arctic 
cold in the 
czar's land. 

Of course we 
all know that 
the czar is the 
Emperor of Rus- 
sia. He rules 
over a giant 
country. It oc- 
cupies one-sixth 
of the land sur- 
face of the en- 
tire globe, and 
is second in size 
to the British Empire only. It is even more impos- 
ing than King Edward's realm, for the British Empire 
is composed of many lands scattered here and there 
and widely separated by oceans and continents. 

Russia sweeps straight across Northern Europe and 
Asia. It is continuous. Beginning in the west with 
Finland, it goes on with European Russia, Poland, 




NICHOLAS II., CZAR OF RUSSIA 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 5 

the Caucasus, a great slice of central Asia, Siberia, 
and stops only at the Pacific coast. Its area is 8,644,- 
100 square miles. As an American traveler has said, 
"All the United States with Alaska would hardly 
make a patch for the healing of a rent on Russia's 
vast garment." And by the time you read this, the 
area may have increased several thousand square 
miles, for Russia adds new territory to her possessions 
with as much ease as she adds ships to her navy. 

Nicholas II., the czar, is the richest and most power- 
ful monarch of the world to-day, though only thirty- 
five years of age. He is what we call a despot — a 
sovereign whose will is law. He may deal with his 
subjects as he wishes; he rules absolutely over 113,- 
000,000 people ! And yet he is a very modest young 
man. Nicholas II. is the nephew of the gracious 
Queen Alexandra of England, and his sweet-faced 
wife was Queen Victoria's favorite granddaughter. 
This royal couple have four daughters. The older 
ones speak English as fluently as Russian, and play 
with dolls and eat oatmeal for breakfast quite as 
naturally as though their papa were not a despot, the 
Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, Czar of 
Poland, and Grand-Prince of Finland. 

CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY 

What shall we see in czarland? Not fine scenery 
certainly — just a vast flat farm, just plains and steppes, 
swamps and moors, desert wastes and bleak forests. 
There is little seaboard, and most of that little is on 
the ice-bound Arctic coast, or on the inland seas, the 
Black and the Caspian. The mountains are far away 



6 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSS1 



on the boundary line of European Russia. To those 

who have seen the Alps, or the Rockies, the Ural 

Mountains do not seem worth a visit, though they are 

rich in precious stones, in gold, silver, lead and iron. 

The Caucasus Moun- 

tains, between the 

Black and Caspian 

seas, are famed for 

their fine scenery, 

but they lie out of 

the track of our 

little journey. We 

shall be able to visit 

only a few places in 

European Russia. 

The czar has over 
a hundred different 
peoples and tribes 
in his empire. In 
order to be able to 
talk with them all 
in their native tongue 
he would have to 
learn about forty 
different languages 
and dialects. There 
are the Finns, the 

Poles, the Germans, the Jews, the Armenians, the 
Georgians, the Tartars, and all manner of strange 
Asiatic tribes. We shall not be able to visit all of 
these in their home-villages, but in our short journey 
we shall see the Russian people in every walk of I] 




"THE POLICE WATCH EVERY MAN, 
WOMAN AND CHILD" 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 7 

princes, pilgrims, Siberian exiles, soldiers, beggars, 
pedlers, tramps — and the police! 

We may not even travel in Russia without the per- 
mission of the police. We must have passports tell- 
ing who we are, whence we are come, where we are 
going, and much else about our private affairs. The 
police take charge of our passports during our stay in 
each place. We must have their permission to go 
even from one village to another. They are always 
at hand, in every corner of the empire, to demand 
one's passport and ask one questions. 

The police watch every man, woman, and child in 
Russia just as closely as they watch foreigners. They 
know the whereabouts of every one, down to the poor 
servant lass who goes on a short visit. They can tell 
what route she takes, the shops she enters, and with 
whom she talks. What the regular police do not 
know, the secret police find out. Nothing is easier 
in Russia than to be arrested "on suspicion" by the 
secret police and exiled to Siberia. If the suspected 
person is not a subject of the czar, he is escorted out 
of the country and forbidden to return. 

In Russia it is not safe to talk carelessly about the 
czar, his officials, the form of government, the Greek 
Church, or the police. For there is no telling to what 
the most innocent remark mav lead. One mav not 
even read such books and papers as he chooses. The 
Censor is a powerful official who decides what may 
or may not be printed and read in the empire, and a 
strict judge he is. A journey to Russia may prove 
exciting indeed. We mean to avoid suspicious con- 
duct, but if we should be arrested and thrown into a 



es A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

dungeon for a week or two, it would certainly be an 
experience worth describing in our letters home. 

With the feeling that we do not know what a day 
may bring forth, we plan our trip to this strange land. 
We shall visit, first, St. Petersburg, the capital of the 
empire, the story of whose building by Peter the Great 
reads like a tale of the days of giants. We must go 
to Moscow, once the only capital of Russia, and now 
the Holy City to all devout Russians. We shall make 
our way northward almost to reindeer land, to the 
Holy Isles in the White Sea, and steam down the 
Volga River to the southern limits of the empire. We 
must have a glimpse of Warsaw, the ancient capital 
of Poland, and cross the Gulf of Finland to the land 
of the Finns. And so let us be off! 

ST. PETERSBURG 

An ocean steamer carries us across the Baltic Sea 
and eastward through the Gulf of Finland. Kronstadt, 
a strong fortress on an island, here guards the entrance 
to the czar's country. While we are gazing from the 
steamer's deck upon the wharves, dockyards, and 
batteries of Kronstadt, some uniformed officials come 
on board. One of them prepares to examine our pass- 
ports. To our surprise, he signs ours without objection. 

Not all the passengers have such luck. One party 
of English people have to land at Kronstadt and wait, 
under the care of the police, until their passports are 
made right. Nobody knows what is wrong with the 
papers — nobody but the official, who looks as impor- 
tant as though the czar's life were intrusted to his 
sole care. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



9 



And now our 
boat steams up 
the broad River 
Neva toward the 
city of Peter the 
Great, the cap- 
ital of the Rus- 
sian Empire. 
The Neva flows 
from Lake La- 
doga, the largest 
lake in Europe, 
into the Gulf of 
Finland. On 
the banks of 
the stream and 
on the numerous 
islands formed 
by the different 
river mouths, 
stands St. Petersburg. We see its cluster of roofs, 
domes, spires, and pinnacles ahead of us. One immense 
golden dome shines like a ball of fire. That is the 
dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral. And there, rising 
against the sky, is a high, glittering spire as fine as a 
needle to our sight — the spire of the fortress church 
beneath which lie buried Peter the Great and all the 
czars since his time. 

More bearded officials in uniform meet us as we land 
at the city docks. Here is the customhouse, where 
we pay the examiner a silver ruble (worth about fifty- 
eight cents), to keep him from turning the contents 




RUSSIAN CAB DRIVER 



10 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

of our trunks upside down. And here are the droshky 
or cab drivers disputing with one another for the 
privilege of taking us to a hotel. 

The Neva, glistening, and broad as a lake, its water 
of the clearest blue, is covered with sea-going craft, 
pleasure boats, river barges, and fishing smacks. The 
river banks are faced with massive red granite quays; 
buildings of solid masonry overlook the water. Islands 
far out in the river are covered with buildings. 

People all about us are speaking in the strange Rus- 
sian tongue. More than half the men seem to be in 
uniform. Their badges often show a silver double- 
headed eagle. This double-headed eagle is a symbol 
of the united Eastern and Western empires. 

Racing through the broad, broad streets in a drosh- 
ky, we get a general idea of St. Petersburg. It is 
just a fine modern city with wide streets, huge palaces, 
excellent shops, some green squares, parks, and pleasure 
grounds, a monument here and there, and a busy 
populace. It might be a German city, or a French 
one, or even an American one, except for the appear- 
ance of the people. 

We see a priest of the Greek Church. He has long 
hair and flowing robes, and even wears a beard. He 
looks like no priest we have ever seen before. And 
there go some peasants in red cotton blouses, queer 
caps, and baggy trousers tucked inside huge boots. 
A Russian peasant is called a mujik. Xow we pass 
a street shrine where a Russian peasant woman in 
short skirts and richly embroidered apron is kneeling 
before the picture of a saint. Xow we see a church 
with a cluster of big domes painted blue and dotted 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 1 1 

with gold stars. Another church has green domes. 
Many of the houses are covered with stucco and painted 
terra eotta, pale pink, or yellow. The roofs are of 
sheet iron colored red or green. 

Our droshky is a humble little vehicle, very uncom- 
fortable, in which there is barely room for two passen- 
gers. It is drawn by a single horse wearing so little 
harness that we wonder what holds him to the carriage. 
Over his head is a high arched yoke gaily painted. 
The droshky driver sits on a high seat in front. He 
is a great big fellow, with a baggy coat belted in at 
the waist, high boots, and a cloth cap which he lifts 
politely in answering our questions. He speaks broken 
English, learned during a year's stay in the United 
States. 

Many of this driver's friends have emigrated to 
America, he says. While his old mother lives he must 
stay in Russia. But when she is gone, back he will 
go to the land where passports and secret police, and 
censors, and low wages cease from troubling an honest 
workman. 

Our cabman drives furiously, making us rejoice that , 
the droshky is swung close to the ground so that an 
upset would not injure us greatly. Though the sturdy 
little horse goes at a frightful pace, he never runs into 
anything, being easily controlled. Cab-drivers here 
are arrested if they injure a pedestrian. A droshky 
driver is called an isvoshchik, which word serves as a 
sample of the Russian language. 

Our hotel looks like any large modern hotel, but it 
proves to be second-rate, as are the hotels of all Russian 
cities. The rooms are untidy, the servants lazy and 



12 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

talkative, and there are fleas in the carpets, and else- 
where. But the beds are clean, so we unpack our 
baggage, hang up our United States flag and our pic- 
ture of the President, and order tea served in our 
room. Each floor of the hotel has its own servants 
and a little kitchen, from which one may quickly 
obtain a "short order" meal of tea, toast, eggs, and 
other simply prepared dishes. 

The waitress brings us a Russian tea urn, called a 
samovar. This is a tall copper urn with a cylinder 
in the center where charcoal burns. This keeps the 
water in the urn at boiling heat, so that tea may be 
freshly made for each cup. The samovar belongs 
particularly to Russia, which is a nation of tea-drink- 
ers. The Russians import vast quantities of tea from 
China, some of it of very fine quality. While here, 
we shall drink our tea in Russian style, from a glass, 
with a slice of lemon in it, no milk, and the lump of 
sugar held in our fingers, to be sucked between sips. 

At seven o'clock in the evening w T e have a Russian 
dinner; and if the hotels are second-rate in other re- 
spects, they are "tip-top" when it comes to meals. 
Russians are hearty eaters. The meal begins with an 
"appetizer." On the sideboard are numerous dishes, 
containing cheese, dried fruits, pickles, potted fish, 
smoked sturgeon, smoked ham, pickled herring, chicken 
and game; and there, too, are wines, and wonderful 
Russian brews, spicy and delicious. 

•The appetizer seems to us a full meal in itself, and 
after it come soups, fish pie, roasts, vegetables, pud- 
dings and confectionery, with glass after glass of scald- 
ing hot tea. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



13 



We are delighted with the cakes, pastry, and sweets. 
Russians have famous appetites for such goodies. 
Nowhere else in Europe do pastry-cooks and candy- 
makers receive wages so high as those paid them in 
St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, and other Russian 
cities. Some one has said that a Russian may be 
without towels and soap, combs and brushes, brooms 
and matches, but nowhere is he far from a candy shop. 

We taste none of the peculiar Russian dishes of which 
we have heard, leaving them till chance takes us to a 
restaurant later on. We give our waiter some kopecks 
(copper coins worth 
one hundredth part 
of a silver ruble), 
and, summoning a 
droshky, start for an 
after-dinner drive 
through the beauti- 
ful summer gardens 
on the islands of the 
Neva. 

These islands are 
connected by numer- 
ous fine bridges, and 
are oc cupied by 
public buildings, the 
summer villas of the 
nobles, pleasure gar- 
dens, driveways, 
open-air theaters, 
and pavilions where 
bands play. On the a pie seller 




14 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

island of Vassili Ostroff are the customhouse, the 
Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Fine Arts, the 
barracks, the buildings of the mining corps, the Ex- 
change, and other stately structures. 

We go to Strelka Point and have a splendid view 
of this mighty cit}^ We look out toward the Gulf of 
Finland and still may see the sunset glow across its 
waters. One could see the summer sun all night 
long from the top of a high building. We drive 
from island to island, often in a fairyland of lights, 
fountains, flower gardens, pavilions, terraces, swaying 
vines and shadowy trees. Boats with festoons of 
electric lights ply the river in every direction. Music 
sounds from cafe and garden. 

It is a fascinating place, and the very next morning 
we return to the summer gardens and loiter about 
amid the trees, looking at the flowers, fountains, and 
statuary. 

p, We see a monument to Kriloff, the Russian writer 
of fables, who was the special delight of Russian 
children. They still like to read his queer stories 
about horses, cows, sheep, donkeys, foxes, wolves, hens, 
and other fur and feather folk. Kriloff died at St. 
Petersburg in 1844. Around the pedestal of his monu- 
ment figures of his animal friends are carved in relief. 
Kriloff himself is represented in his dressing-gown, 
seated in his arm chair, apparently gazing down upon 
this procession of animals. 

Looking upon the Neva, its banks and islands, we 
see how low is the site of the city. It was built on 
marshes and has several times been flooded by the 
waters of the Gulf of Finland, which, driven by terrible 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



15 



winds, backed up into the river, causing an overflow. 
St. Petersburg is an unhealthful place. Fevers rage 
among the poor, who live in crowded underground 
rooms along the river banks. When the Neva rises 
high these wretched cellar homes are flooded, and the 
tenants are driven out upon the street. Then as soon 




ALEXANDER COLUMN AND THE GENERALTY 



as the waters subside, the poor return to their un- 
wholesome homes, where disease sweeps them off by 
hundreds. 

How did the Russian capital happen to be built in 
such a spot? Let us visit the tomb of its founder, 
Peter the Great — the truly greatest czar in Russian 
history, and one of the most remarkable men in all 



16 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

history — and there speak of the founding of this city 
East of the island of Vassili Ostroff is the fortress 
island with its Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. 
This cathedral is the burial place of Peter the Great 
and of all the czars but one since his time. We pass 
within the dark fortress walls (for the cathedral is 
inside the fortress) and before entering the church 
pause to look up at its beautiful spire, which we saw 
on approaching the city. Richly gilded, the spire 
rises over three hundred feet above the ground. On 
its peak stands the figure of an angel bearing aloft a 
cross. 

In the gloomy interior of the church are the marble 
tombs of Russian royalty whose bodies lie beneath 
the floor. Here rests Czar Peter; and but a few steps 
from this church is the little hut where he lived while 
superintending the building of his capital city. He 
laid the foundations of this fortress in 1703, as the 
very beginning of St. Petersburg. 

Although Russia is over a thousand years old, she 
is still called a young nation. This is because for 
many centuries she was not half civilized, was even a 
barbarous nation, and so was of small importance 
among the civilized peoples of Europe. For over two 
centuries (from 1237 to 1481) Russia was overrun by 
the Tartars, an Asiatic horde, cruel and barbarous, 
and was subject to them. 

When New York city had been settled nearly a 
hundred years, and Boston over seventy, the place 
where St. Petersburg now stands was a desolate swamp 
half under water, surrounded by forests, its wastes 
visited by only a few poor fishermen. Russia was 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 17 

still a country of which the rest of Europe knew little 
and for which it cared less. 

Russians then lived as do the half-civilized peoples 
of the Far East to-day. The men wore robes and 
flowing beards, and kept their wives and daughters 
hidden in a kind of harem. When the women appeared 
in the streets they were veiled, or rode in carriages 
with curtains drawn. Wife-beating was a common 
custom; only priests advised the husbands not to use 
too thick a club. 

When the czar's subjects appeared before their ruler 
they prostrated themselves to the ground, with heads 
bent in the dust. Schools, libraries, museums, hos- 
pitals were wholly lacking. There was no navy; no 
disciplined Russian army. In remoter parts of the 
land bands of armed men pillaged and plundered as 
they chose. The czar murdered his subjects, and the 
people now and then murdered a czar. Moscow was 
the capital. 

Peter the Great began to reign when he was seven- 
teen years old. His elder sister Sophia had tried to 
keep the government in her own hands and to make 
him unfit to rule by purposely giving him no education 
and placing every evil temptation in his way. He 
had a hot temper, was coarse in manner and ignorant 
of books. But he had a keen thirst for knowledge, 
high ambitions for his empire, and a will of iron. 

His empire was then inland, except on the northern 
boundary, where the Polar sea broke on icebergs. 
Archangel, his only seaport, was ice-bound almost 
the year around. The Swedes were between Peter's 
iaad and the Baltic; the Turks kept him from the 



18 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



Black Sea ; and the Persians were in possession of 
the region along the Caspian. Peter knew that no 
country could prosper without communication by 
sea with other lands. He wanted a seaport, " a window 
toward Europe." 

"It is not land I need, but water!" he cried. So 
he fought the Swedes until he wrested from them 
the Baltic provinces. This gave him a seaboard. 

The only place for his sea- 
port was thus the low land 
where the River Xeva flows 
into the Gulf of Finland. 
It was a most unpromising 
site for a city. The sea 
often flooded these swamps. 
It was so far north that the 
harbor would be ice-bound 
six months in the year, 
while for two months every 
year there is no night at 
all, dawn beginning where 
twilight ends; and for two winter months the 
daylight lasts less than five hours in every twenty- 
four. 

There was not only no dry land upon which to build 
a city, but also no material with which to construct 
it — no stones, clay, or wood. To cap all these diffi- 
culties, there were no workmen, and no tools; and 
lying in wait for Peter, just across the Baltic Sea, 
was his chief enemy, King Charles XII. of Sweden. 
Peter cared nothing for difficulties. He enjoyed 
hard tasks. When he decided to do a thing, he did 




PETER THE GREAT 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 19 

it. He built his log hut here on this island of the 
Neva, and with his own hands laid the first stones 
of the fortress. 

Thousands of laborers were brought to the task 
from all parts of his empire : Finns, Russians, Tartars, 
Cossacks, even criminals from Siberia. They had 
no tools; so Peter ordered them to dig with their 
hands and carry earth in their caps or in bags made 
of their clothing. Stone was needed; so Peter pro- 
hibited the use of stone in any other city of his em- 
pire and had every boat in Russia bringing stone 
to his new capital. 

Cold, hunger, and fevers killed his workmen. More 
were brought to take their places. Over a hundred 
thousand men perished during the first year of building 
St. Petersburg. Meantime Charles XII. of Sweden 
sent word that when he had time he would come 
and burn down Peter's wooden town. 

In less than nine vears the new capital was ready 
for inhabitants. It was protected by the fortress 
on this island, and had a harbor. Peter now ordered 
people to come and live in his city. Three hundred 
and fifty noble families were moved from Moscow 
to St. Petersburg, where they were forced to build 
palaces for themselves in the places pointed out 
to them by Peter. He commanded merchants, arti- 
sans, and mechanics to move hither from every part 
of his empire. He brought artists and engineers 
from all over Europe to his city, selecting the inhabi- 
tants for his new capital just as a housekeeper would 
choose furniture for her house. 

Splendid buildings rose in St, Petersburg on all 



20 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

sides. Much care had to be taken in laying all foun- 
dations, because the soil was wet and yielding. It 
is said that the foundations of St. Petersburg have 
cost almost as much as the city. Piles must be 
driven into the marshy land, one upon another, 
extending downward row on row until a building 
reaches as far into the earth as it does into the air. 

Thus six hundred acres have been reclaimed from 
waste land and made into the city of Peter the Great. 
Charles XII. did not burn down Peter's wooden town. 
He was defeated by Peter once and for all at Poltava. 

Peter's little hut on the fortress island has been 
carefully preserved by enclosing it within an outer 
shell. One little room has been fitted up as a chapel, 
to which many devout Russians come often for prayer. 

Leaving the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, 
we cross the Neva to the main part of the city. Let 
us drive down the chief boulevard, called the Nevski 
Prospect. It runs parallel with the Neva, giving 
a view of the river, as its name indicates. At one 
end of this fine boulevard is the building of the Ad- 
miralty, with a tall gilt spire bearing on its peak a 
golden ship for a weathervane. 

From the Admiralty square, the Nevski Prospect 
extends three miles in a straight, level course. It 
is as broad as a Paris boulevard and is bordered 
by handsome buildings, churches, shops, the Winter 
Palace, St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Imperial Library, 
the home of Nicholas II. and his family, and other 
places of interest. 

Pedestrians and vehicles throng the Nevski at all 
hours, yet so broad are these St. Petersburg streets 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



21 



and so vast the squares, that one almost feels lonely. 
The crowds of people do not seem like crowds. How- 
ever, St. Petersburg has a population of 1,003,315. 
It is the fourth city in size in Europe. 

Among the handsome coaches and smart traps 
on the Nevski, we 
see man}^ troikas. A 
troika is a vehicle 
drawn by three 
horses abreast, only 
the middle horse be- 
ing harnessed in the 
shafts, with the 
high arched yoke 
over his neck. The 
two outer horses, 
harnessed by a rein, 
have their heads 
bent outward. They 
must be kept at a 
gallop, the middle 
horse at a desperate 
trot. At its best, 
the troika is a very 
dashing turnout, 
peculiarly Russian. 

In winter the 
sleighs, drawn by three horses thus harnessed, must 
be a gallant sight. On country roads bells jingle on 
the high yokes of the horses, but in the cities no bells 
are permitted. Instead the drivers shout a warning 
to one another as they meet. Add to this the snap- 




A HOUSE PORTER CARRYING WATER 



22 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

ping of whips, the clucking noise that the drivers 
make as they urge forward their swift horses, and 
the cries of "Faster! faster!" from gay merrymakers 
in the sleighs, and the scene must be exciting. 

Almost as swiftly as a sleigh our carriage flies up 
and down the Nevski, finally leaving us at Admiralty 
Place, the square where are situated the chief public 
buildings. Here we see the splendid equestrian statue 
of Peter the Great. It is of bronze, mounted upon a 
block of Finland granite which weighs fifteen hundred 
tons — said to be the very stone on which Peter stood 
watching while his navy gained a victory over the 
Swedes. 

The monument represents Peter astride his steed, 
which he is reining in at full gallop on the brink of 
a precipice. His face is turned toward the Neva, 
while his right hand points to the city which he caused 
to rise from the frozen swamps. Under the horse's 
feet is a serpent, the symbol of those obstacles which 
Peter overcame in building his capital. Falconet, 
a French sculptor, designed this monument for the 
Empress Catherine II. The inscription upon it reads. 

TO PETER I. 

FROM CATHERINE II. 

1782 

Peter's monument peers out through the trees 
of a little park, upon the great church opposite it. 

RUSSIAN CHURCHES 

St. Isaac's Cathedral is one of the grandest modern 
churches of Europe. Its golden dome rising brightly 
above the city roofs is always the first object to catch 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



23 



the eyes of the traveler approaching St. Petersburg. 
This mighty central dome is surrounded by a cluster 
of smaller ones, each surmounted by a gilded cross. 
Mounting to the central dome, we have a broad 
view of the city, which, as some one has said, looks 
from here like a barge so overladen, in the midst of 



,JC^ III 


1 

\ V 






P. - - •• t_ "3W^^t 











ST. ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL 



the waters, that if one put a few more tons upon it 
it would sink. Some people even prophesy that 
St. Petersburg will be destroyed by flood one of these 
days. 

From this dome we look directly down upon St. 
Isaac's roof. The church is of marble and Finland 
granite, built in the form of a Greek cross. All the 
treasures of Russian quarries and Russian mines 



24 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



have been brought together in adorning it. Descending 
to the street, we enter the church by one of the four 
magnificent entrances. Each is approached by three 
flights of stone steps, and each flight is cut from a 
single block of rose granite. 

We pass through a portico supported by granite 
pillars polished like 
mirrors. Each pillar 
is a monolith (a col- 
umn cut from a sin- 
gle block of stone) 60 
feet high and 7 feet 
in diameter, with a 
weight of 128 tons. 
These monoliths are 
the largest ever quar- 
ried. No wonder it 
took twenty-five years 
merely to lay the 
foundations of this 
massive building. 
Forty years were con- 
sumed in building the 
cathedral, and $14,- 
000,000. In all $65,- 
000,000 has been ex- 
pended upon it since 
it was begun. 

In this great church a priest is conducting service. 
A burst of glorious music greets us as we enter. The 
congregation is standing. Many persons hold tapers 
in their hands. Lights blaze here and there before 




A BISHOP OF THE GREEK CHURCH 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 25 

holy pictures adorned with countless jewels. The 
priest is in the richest robes and chants his part of 
the service with a splendid bass voice. All about 
we look upon gems, carvings, and jewel-decked paint- 
ings. The pavement is of variegated marble; the 
altars blaze with precious stones; the walls are inlaid 
with verd-antique. 

There is no organ. The Russian Church has no 
music but that of male voices; but the services are 
almost all music, and the voices are such as we may 
hear nowhere else in the world. Nowhere outside 
of Russia are there such basses, while the soprano 
sung by boys is wonderfully sweet and clear. The 
choir is concealed from view behind a screen. 

There are no pews. The congregation stands or 
kneels. Even the czar must stand. As the service 
often lasts two hours, this is a test of one's piety 
and strength. But the Russian churches are crowded 
always. There never was a more religious people 
than the Russians. Besides, they must obey their 
p priests. Usually there are even more men at church 
than women. Women are never allowed to sing 
in a Russian church; nor may they enter the holy 
place, a sacred room behind the altar. 

We see no images in this cathedral such as are 
everywhere in a Roman Catholic Church. The Greek 
Church (or Russian, as we have been calling it) does 
not permit the use of images. Instead there are 
sacred pictures of the Saviour, the Virgin and the 
saints, called icons. Every icon in the church is 
framed with rich jewels, the gift of worshipers whose 
prayers to the saint have been answered. 



26 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

On entering a church the pious Russian buys a 
candle to place before the icon of his guardian angel. 
Kneeling before the picture, he kisses it, and bows 
his forehead to the pavement in prayer. Often during 
the service the members of the congregation fall 
upon their knees, bowing their foreheads to the floor. 

Prayer is to the Russians an hourly exercise. They 
are forever prostrating themselves in prayer, mak- 
ing the sign of the cross, and burning candles 
before icons. Saints' days are constantly being cele- 
brated. Feasts and fasts occupy so many days that 
a devout Russian has left but one hundred and thirty 
working days in a year. The Greek Church has 
endless rites and ceremonies. Baptisms, marriages, 
deaths, harvests — all are honored by the Church with 
long religious ceremonies. All new buildings must 
be blessed by the priest before they are used, even 
hotels, railway stations, jails, and factories. 

After the people have left St. Isaac's Cathedral, 
we spend an hour or more examining the ornaments 
and treasures of this vast church. The columns of 
malachite are the largest columns of this costly mineral 
found anywhere in the world. There are beautiful 
pillars of lapis-lazuli, and exquisite mosaics. 

The chief wealth of treasure consists in the jeweled 
icons. An icon is like no other painting, for only 
the face and hands of the figure are painted, the 
rest of the picture is raised work in silver or gold. 
The frames of many are closely set with rubies, dia- 
monds, amethysts, sapphires, and pearls. Stored 
away in caskets are the richest of priestly vest^ 
ments and other relics. The Greek Church is not 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 27 

only the most ancient Christian church, but also the 
richest by far. 

We pass a street shrine, one of many hundred in 
St. Petersburg. These shrines are tiny chapels which 
in appearance have been likened to toll-houses. Each 
has on its walls the picture of the saint to which it is 
dedicated. Every passer-by crosses himself, doffs 
his cap, or kneels in prayer at the shrine. 

This shrine near the St. Nicholas Bridge is dedicated 
to Saint Nicholas. A mujik is kneeling, with his 
forehead upon the ground, before the sacred picture 
of Saint Nicholas; he even kisses the pavement. 
Nicholas is a popular saint, being the patron of children, 
sailors, pilgrims, nobles, and adventurers. The Book 
of Saints declares him the most powerful saint in 
heaven, though he was once just a poor Russian 
priest. 

All along the splendid Nevski Prospect are churches. 
Indeed, this boulevard has been called " Toleration 
Avenue" because it is bordered by churches of so 
many different faiths: Greek, Roman Catholic, Dutch, 
Lutheran, and Armenian. The Cathedral of our Lady 
of Kazan is dedicated to the Virgin, and has a 
wealth of precious stones and jewels lavished upon it. 

Kazan, in eastern Russia, was once a Tartar capital, 
strongly fortified and defended, and a source of 
much trouble to the Russians. Under Ivan the 
Terrible, a fierce, warlike czar, the Russian soldiers 
took Kazan, carrying at the head of their columns 
a precious picture of the Virgin. They believed that 
the Virgin gave them the victory over their Tartar 
enemies, and they built this cathedral in memory of 



28 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

the event. The picture, richly covered with jewels 
and pearls, is worshiped here. 

We see here on the walls all manner of war trophies, 
flags taken in battle and keys of captured cities; 
and here are even tombs of generals killed in the 
war with France. It seems strange to attend service 
in this vast' church, where the chorus of men's voices 
rises to the roof in solemn chants; where prayers, 
and incense, and kneeling figures all speak of peace in 
the midst of memories of wars on wars. 

We see a church of white marble, the Smolni Cathe- 
dral; and the splendid Memorial Church, built on the 
spot where Alexander II. was assassinated by dynamite 
bombs thrown by Nihilists. 

Around the belfries of all the churches fly flocks 
of pigeons. Such a fluttering of wings as there always 
is about the spires and domes! We see many crows 
and magpies, too, but the pigeon, or dove, is sacred 
in Russia. The people say that the Holy Spirit 
descended upon Christ in the form of a dove, and so 
the dove must be protected and cared for. 

SIGHTS OF THE CITY 

Not far from St. Isaac's Cathedral we see the famous 
Alexander column. It stands before a crescent-shaped 
line of buildings called the staff headquarters and 
rises to a total height of 154 feet. St. Petersburg 
is proud of this column because the shaft, 84 feet high 
and 14 feet in diameter, is the largest monolith of 
modern times. It is of red Finland granite and rises 
from a pedestal of bronze, being surmounted by a 
bronze capital. On the capital stands the figure of 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



29 




WINTER PALACE AND ALEXANDER COLUMN 



an angel bearing aloft a cross. The angel is 14 feet 
high — over twice the height of a tall man. The bronze 
used for pedestal and capital was melted down from 
Turkish cannon captured in battle. On the pedestal 
is a simple inscription: 

GRATEFUL RUSSIA TO ALEXANDER I. 

Alexander I. was czar when Napoleon Bonaparte 
marched into Russia with a vast army to conquer 
the empire; but the Russians set fire to Moscow, 
compelled the French to retreat in winter when snow 
and storm killed many, and delivered not only 
Russia but all Europe from the French conqueror. 
Alexander I. was hailed as the Deliverer. 



30 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

Because of its great weight the column was given a 
foundation about 150 feet deep. Yet it is said to be 
settling slowly downward and thus may be destroyed 
in time. The climate is so severe in winter that all 
the monuments and public buildings are suffering. 
Every June, in St. Petersburg, an army of painters 
and decorators is set at work recoloring the stucco 
houses and repairing the chipped and cracked orna- 
ments on the buildings. So summer shows the cap- 
ital beautified anew. 

On the Neva bank facing the square of the Admiralty 
stands the Winter Palace. It is one of the largest and 
finest royal palaces in Europe, but is now used only for 
court receptions, balls, and state ceremonies. The czar 
Nicholas II. and his family, when in St. Petersburg, 
live in the Anitchkoff Palace on the Xevski Prospect. 
Xear the Winter Palace we pass a small guard-house, 
before which stands a palace guard as immovable as 
a statue. He wears an enormous top-lofty fur cap, 
his uniform is decorated with straps and medals, 
and the rifle by his side is highly polished. 

The Winter Palace has always been well guarded, 
but in spite of care the Nihilists, a party of desperate 
people who wished to overthrow the Government, 
gained entrance there about twenty years ago and 
blew up with dynamite a portion of several rooms. 
Alexander II. was czar at that time. He was grand- 
father of the present czar and is called the Emancipa- 
tor, because in 1861 he freed the serfs of his empire. 

After two hundred and sixty years of serfdom, 
fifty million Russian peasants became free men at 
the command of Alexander II. As serfs they were 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 31 

fixed to the soil which they tilled. When an estate 
was sold the serfs went with it as a part of the fixtures, 
like the cattle and farm implements. Their condition 
was one of utter misery. Several czars had deter- 
mined to abolish serfdom, but until Alexander II. 
came to the throne no one ever really undertook the 
task. The peasants greatly loved him; so did all 
good people in his empire. But the Nihilists hated 
czars and determined to kill him. Five times they 
attempted it and twice nearly succeeded. 

After being conducted through one imposing apart- 
ment after another in the Winter Palace, where 
polished marble, frescos, paintings, gems, statuary, 
and costly curios glitter everywhere, we come to a 
simple little room sacred to the memory of Alexander 
II. On Sunday morning, March 13, 1881, he left 
this little room, and went out to inspect a regiment 
of marines. An hour later he w AG carried back, fast 
bleeding to death, one leg shattered to the thigh, 
the other to the knee, and placed upon the narrow 
iron bed in the recess, and there he breathed his last. 

As he was driving homeward to the palace a bomb 
had been thrown beneath his carriage. Stepping 
unhurt from the carriage to approach the assassin, 
whom the police had seized, he was struck down by 
another bomb. Then he was carried home to the 
little room. 

Thus the Russian czar who freed fifty million slaves 
suffered death by assassination just as did our own 
Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln. The negro slaves 
were freed in 1863, but two years after Russian serf- 
dom was abolished. Russia fought no war of libera- 



32 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



tion; the serfs were bought from their owners by the 
Government, set free, and given enough land to 
make a home for each family. 

We turn away, to wander through the Throne Room 
of Peter the Great, and through the vast Hall of St. 
George, which has been the scene of many grand balls 
and court receptions. This hall is 140 feet long and 
60 feet wide; for court festivities it is transformed into 
a wonderful summer garden with tropical plants, 
flowers, foliage, music, and fountains, amid which the 
brilliant uniforms of the nobles and the satins and 
jewels of the ladies make a beautiful picture. 

We see the crown jewels of Russia in a room guarded 
day and night. The czar's crown is heavy with dia- 
monds, being in the form of a dome upon the top of 




THE HERMITAGE 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 33 

which is an immense ruby, bearing a cross of almost 
priceless diamonds. The czarina's crown is a mass of 
precious gems. 

Adorning the czar's scepter is the famous Orloff 
diamond, said to be the most magnificent jewel in the 
world. Once this diamond formed the eye of an idol 
in a temple in India. A French soldier stole it and 
sold it for two thousand guineas. Finally it was 
bought by Prince Orloff, who paid over half a million 
dollars for it and presented it to Empress Catherine II. 

We could spend days of sightseeing in the Winter 
Palace, it is so large. Several thousand people at 
a time have dwelt beneath its roof. Merely the 
brooms with which to sweep it cost a small fortune 
each year. The exterior is not really fine, though the 
size makes it imposing ; the outer walls are of stucco, 
painted yellow and brown. 

THE HERMITAGE 

We cross a bridge from the Winter Palace to the 
Hermitage, now an art museum, but formerly a little 
palace built for Catherine II. as a refuge from the 
cares of her empire. Here she gathered about her 
a group of celebrated artists, musicians, men of letters 
and philosophers — just as Frederick the Great of 
Prussia had his group of illustrious men about him at 
Sans Souci Palace near Berlin. 

The present Hermitage has been rebuilt since Cath- 
erine's time. It is rich in art treasures: pictures by 
Dutch, Flemish, German, and Spanish Old Masters; 
and collections of antique sculptures — especially speci- 
mens of Greek vases, urns, and the like, excavated 



34 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

from ruins on the north coast of the Black Sea and 
supposed to have been wrought by Greek colonists 
six hundred years before the time of Christ. This is 
one of the most valuable collections. 

There are in every nook of the Hermitage coins, 
gems, frescos, silken tapestries, porphyry vases, mala- 
chite tables, candelabra of violet jasper, ivory carvings, 
and rare books. We walk through long galleries full 
of books. It seems a pity that so much wealth should 
be shut up in palace libraries when forty-nine fiftieths 
of the Russian people receive no education in schools! 

One gallery opening from the Hermitage contains 
relics of Peter the Great. In the center of the rcom 
is a life-size wax effigy of Peter, seated in his own chair. 
In his hand is a sword given him by a deposed ruler of 
Poland. Here is the chariot in which Peter often 
drove; and here the horse which he rode at the battle 
of Pultava, when he defeated Charles XII. of Sweden. 
The charger is stuffed and is kept in a glass case. 
His favorite dogs also are preserved here; and we are 
shown casts of Peter's head taken after his death. On 
the walls are several portraits of him, one done in 
mosaic. 

Peter was a man of giant height. We see the wooden 
rod with which he was measured. It is notched a 
foot above a tall man's head. His walking stick is 
a heavy iron staff. We are shown his books, his tools 
(turning lathes, knives and chisels), specimens of his 
wood-carving, his telescopes, his drawing and surgical 
implements. 

Peter early determined to civilize his subjects and 
make Russia a great power among European nations. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 35 

But first he must educate himself. So he studied 
foreign languages, science, art, ship-building and 
military tactics. Every art and handicraft which 
could help him in his purpose he mastered, working 
night and day. Besides, he sent fifty young nobles 
to European courts to study, and in time followed 
them, going to the Netherlands first, to learn ship- 
building and seamanship. 

Dressing himself in disguise and calling himself 
Peter Mikhailof, a Dutch skipper, Peter worked at 
ship-building in the village of Zaandam, Holland. Then 
he studied in Amsterdam, learning anatomy, geography, 
astronomy; nothing escaped him. He learned about 
everything he saw; rope-making, cutlery, the whaling 
industry, paper manufacture, how to pull teeth, and 
how to use a miscroscope. He was entertained at 
stately receptions at The Hague, where the Dutch 
nobility thought the Czar of Russia the strangest 
man ever born. His immense size and rude manners 
and his eagerness to learn amazed them. 

Peter decided that Russia must have a navy. So 
he returned home accompanied by a ship-load of 
naval officers, shipwrights, riggers and sail-makers, 
to teach his people seamanship. He was accompanied, 
too, by engineers, artists, surgeons and others dis- 
tinguished in every art and profession. 

With the aid of these he began to civilize his empire 
wholesale. He ordered all Russian men to shave 
their beards and dress in modern garments. At every 
city gate were stationed barbers and tailors, guarded 
by soldiers, whose duty it was to shave the long- 
bearded men and cut off their long coats. Of course 



36 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

the Russians were bitterly opposed to all this, but 
Peter had his way. He decreed that the women should 
put aside veils, cease to live in harems, wear European 
clothing, and even attend balls and other social 
gatherings. 

The nobles had always presented themselves pros- 
trate before him, their faces laid in the dust. Peter 
ordered them up, even using a stick on them if they 
forgot their new manners. Strange as his method seems, 
it was largely successful. Russia quickly took on 
the outward appearance of modern civilization, where 
other barbaric nations have found it a slow growth. 
Peter established schools, hospitals, museums, a botan- 
ical garden, printing-houses, a medical college, and 
libraries. He gave Russia a navy, a disciplined army, 
and a brand-new seaport and capital city. 

THE IMPERIAL LIBRARY 

Loitering down the Nevski Prospect, we enter the 
Imperial Public Library. The catalogue tells us of 
the riches of this library. There are here over a million 
volumes and thousands of valuable manuscripts and 
engravings. Catherine II., the most famous empress 
of Russia, established this library; and her statue 
stands in front of the building. We are shown here 
the most valuable book in the world, a manuscript 
copy of the Old and New Testaments in Greek, written 
but three hundred and thirty years after the birth of 
Christ. 

During the persecutions of the Christians by the 
Roman emperors, in the first centuries after Christ, one 
wicked emperor undertook to search out all the copies 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 37 

of the sacred books and burn them, It looked as 
though the Bible would be destroyed, and the world 
would lose it. But the Christians hid their copies of 
it — there were but a few copies — guarding the sacred 
book at the risk of being tortured to death. 

When Constantine, the first Christian emperor, 
began to reign, the best copies of the Bible were sought 
out, carefully compared, and revised. Then Constan- 
tine ordered fifty copies of this revised version to be 
made on the finest skins, by the best scribes. From 
these fifty copies all other editions were taken, but 
at length the fifty were no longer used and gradually 
disappeared. 

In 1859 a learned gentleman, Tischendorf, dis- 
covered an ancient manuscript in the convent of St. 
Catherine on Mount Sinai. It was in excellent condi- 
tion, not a single leaf had been lost or mutilated, and 
it proved to be one of those fifty copies made by order 
of Constantine ! The story of its discovery by Tischen- 
dorf reads like a romance. The copy was brought 
to St. Petersburg and placed in the Imperial Library 
early in the nineteenth century. 

There are over fifteen hundred manuscripts of the 
Bible in existence at present, but this one is the most 
valued of three very precious ones. The Alexandrine 
manuscript in the British Museum, London, and the 
Vatican manuscript in the Vatican at Rome are the 
other two. 

THE MARKET 

We spend much time among the shops of the Gos- 
tinnoi Dvor, the great marketplace on the Nevski 



38 A LITTLE JOtTRNEY TO RUSSIA 

Prospect. It is like the bazaars of the Far East with 
rows of small shops under one vast arcade. The 
articles for sale cover every need of man, it seems- 
urs food, household goods, from the largest article 
to the least clothing, carriages, pictures, horses, 
libraries, uniforms, flowers, tapestry, and curios from 
every land. We buy a brass samovar, and jewelry 
of malachite and lapis-lazuli from Siberian mines, and 
■embroidered slippers and sashes from the Tartar 
provinces of eastern Russia, and a number of articles 
made in St. Petersburg factories 

Petersburg, as the Russians call their capital, is a 
commercial center for the whole empire. Goods 
come from far inland points to St. Petersburg by way 
of the canals which connect the different river systems 

in the sT t °K T ?° USandS ° f Pe ° ple are ^yZ 
n the St. Petersburg factories. There are glass-works 

tanneries sugar-refineries, cotton-mills, breweries, S 

bacco-works, a porcelain manufactory, and a carpet 

manufactory modeled after that of the Gobelins at 

As we loiter among the shops we see people from 

uTwoTnT ° f *}f CZa - r ' S em P ire - Heni "are" beau" 
Jul women from Georgia, south of the Caucasus 
Georgia is famous for its beautiful women. AndTre 
are P inns-short, sturdy, and always neat, though 

hey are seldom handsome. The Poles look 1 ike S 
Russian kinsmen. They are dark-haired, fine-lookinT 
and often distinguished in appearance 'and Tearing 
The Russian peasants, or nmjiks, are a sad-faced 

e P a e c°h P d7v Wea Ther n ° ^ *** ^ f ° r ^ ^ 
each day. There are sisters of charity from the con- i 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



39 



vents, coarsely-robed monks, barefooted pilgrims on 
their way to. some shrine, policemen everywhere, 
students from the university, wealthy aristocrats in 

elegant coaches with 
servants in livery, 
and shopkeepers eag- 
erly showing them 
their choicest wares. 

Many people are in 
uniform, for in Rus- 
sia every professional 
man, every civil 
officer, every railroad 
employe, and every 
student, even to the 
school boys and girls, 
must wear a uniform. 
Doctors, teachers, 
artists, dentists, civil 
engineers, all are in 
uniforms prescribed 
by law. 

Among the soldiers 
there are policemen everywhere we are most mter- 

ested in the Cossacks, 
with their long dark blue coats, their trousers 
stuffed into heavy cavalry boots, their sabers and guns, 
and their warrior air. The Cossacks inhabit south- 
eastern Russia. The men are born soldiers, tall, 
strong and fearless. The Cossack women are renowned 
for their beauty. As horsemen the Cossacks are not 
surpassed by any people Their children learn to ride 




40 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

almost before they learn to walk; their babies' cradle 
songs are war songs. All their training. is for a soldier's 
life. 

So no part of the Russian army is more important 
than the Cossack cavalry. All difficult scouting, 
sending of secret messages, sentinel duty, and the like 
is entrusted to the Cossacks in war time. Like Indians, 
they are quick to note signs of the enemy's presence, 
and are able to slip, undetected, across hostile territory, 
where no one else would venture. 

The Cossack's horse is almost a part of him. 
These men can ride in any posture, standing up, leaning 
low at the horse's side, lying upon his back, or as they 
will. The rider checks his horse with a motion when 
going at a frightful pace, reins him in at the point of 
a precipice, or silently guides him almost through 
the very camp of the enemy. 

Horse and rider have wonderful powers of endurance, 
never seeming to tire. They move so quickly and 
silently that the suddenness of their attack is terrible 
to the enemy. Sometimes in making an attack the 
Cossack flings himself to the ground, orders his horse 
to lie down in front of him, and resting his gun on the 
animal, fires from behind him as a breastwork. 

WINTER IN THE CITY 

We should like to visit St. Petersburg in winter. 
The czar returns from his summer palace; the nobility 
open their luxurious homes for the court season; in the 
theaters and opera houses are nightly performances 
1 > y the finest actors and singers in the world ; the shops 
are brilliant with lights, rich wares, and elegantly 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 41 

clad shoppers ; sleighs throng the streets and fly up and 
down the frozen Neva in bewildering confusion; and 
fun, frolic, and good cheer are in the very air. 

The Neva ice is the center of winter sports. Part 
of it is a broad ice road, covered by sleighs and sledges 
and chairs on runners. On part a railway is laid 
each winter from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt. And 
on still another part skaters in furs make merry by the 
hour. Rich folk are given to buying skates made of 
gold or silver. One may even see skates set with 
pearls and precious stones. Diamonds are sometimes 
used for adornment. Russians naturally skate well, 
but care less for such sport than for sleighing. Ice- 
hilling, an amusement akin to our tobogganing, is 
popular. The ice-hills are built of wood in the form 
of a long slide. An icy path is made by letting water 
freeze on the slide, and down this inclined plane sleds 
dash at a terrific speed. 

In January occurs the ceremony on the Neva 
called " blessing the waters." The czar, all the court 
officials, and the priests of the Greek Church gather 
at the Winter Palace and form a procession, which 
moves solemnly toward the middle of the river, on a 
carpeted board platform. In mid-stream a hole has 
been cut in the ice and a wooden temple built over 
it. The procession bearing lighted tapers arrives at 
the temple, where crowds have gathered to witness the 
ceremony. 

The priest immerses the cross in the icy river, blesses 
the stream, prays that it may enrich the soil and bring 
prosperity to the people, and sprinkles the people 
with the consecrated water. Many carry away bottles 




2; 

O 

M 
X 

r. 

2 
OS 

- 

02 
P 

3 

— 

— > 
H 

aa 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 43 

of the blessed water, believing it to have great power 
after the ceremony. 

In country districts this " blessing of the waters" 
is believed by the superstitious peasants to rid them 
of evil spirits, water nixies, demons and the like. 

In the spring, when the Neva ice breaks up, there 
is another ceremony at the Winter Palace. The 
fortress cannon boom a salute from the island, and the 
commander of the fortress crosses the Neva in a boat, to 
carry to the czar at the Winter Place a goblet of Neva 
water. With much pomp he announces to the czar 
that the river is open to commerce. The czar drinks 
the water and fills the goblet with silver coin. 

Winter is a season of extravagant living in St. 
Petersburg. The capital is an expensive city in which 
to dwell, and the Russian aristocracy are reckless 
money-spenders. They entertain lavishly and expend 
fortunes on dress and in card-playing. Heavy eating 
and drinking, constant cigarette-smoking and drinking 
of tea, dances, theaters, operas, gambling — these are 
the diversions of wealthy Russians. Cards keep them 
occupied day and night, often run them into debt 
(for gambling is a part of card-playing), and are thrown 
aside only when the church services demand attention. 
Playing and praying are the chief occupations of a 
Russian, it has been said. 

Debt hangs over many a family of seeming wealth. 
Most of the great estates of the Russian nobility are 
heavily mortgaged, the money obtained being used 
for pleasures. 

The magnificent homes of these gay aristocrats 
have rooms crowded with costly furniture, paintings, 



44 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

and bric-a-brac; }^et we learn with astonishment, from 
those who know, that the elegance is all for show; 
that private rooms are untidy; that beds go unmade, 
floors unswept, clothing unbrushed; and that slovenly 
habits are not unknown in the most aristocratic 
families. 

Hospitality is a Russian virtue. The samovar is 
always steaming in the drawing-room, that a chance 
guest may have a glass of delicious tea. The dining- 
table is loaded with good things. The host and hostess 
are ever read} r with a cordial welcome. Educated 
Russians are brilliant talkers. They travel widely, 
speak several foreign languages (for Russians have a 
gift for languages), and are well read, in spite of the 
fact that they may not buy what books they wish, nor 
read all foreign papers. 

The Censor bars from sale in Russia so many books 
that were a Russian gentleman to buy for his library 
the works which men in our own country think most 
necessary for their libraries, he would be exiled to 
Siberia for life. Siberia has always been a land for 
exiles — criminals and political offenders. It has been 
called the " Russian Prison." 

The Censor has all foreign periodicals examined 
and everything not to his taste is " blacked out." A 
foreign paper frequently appears in Russia with 
numerous blackened spaces. Of course everybody 
is then curious to find out what was printed under 
those black squares. Often people write to friends 
abroad to send them clippings of the paragraphs 
blacked out. This is dangerous, however, for if it 
should be found out, they would be arrested. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 45 

When one wishes to give a ball or party, in Russia, 
he must first ask permission of the police. The guests 
must always be guarded in their conversation, too, for 
members of the secret police are present, watching 
everyone. 

All public meetings for the discussion of any public 
subject whatever are forbidden in Russia. Sometimes 
the university students hold such a meeting in secret. 
But almost always the police discover the gathering, 
a riot follows, students are arrested wholesale, and a 
number of them may be sent to Siberia for several 
years of exile. 

PLEASURE TRIPS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD 

The summer resorts, villas, and royal palaces along 
the Neva and the Gulf of Finland are the objective 
points of pleasant excursions for us. We visit the 
royal estate of Tsars-Koe-Selo, fifteen miles from the 
city. The first railroad in Russia extended from St. 
Petersburg to Tsars-Koe-Selo, and was built by 
Americans. Catherine II. beautified this royal palace 
and has her name written in amber all over the walls 
of the famous Amber Room. There are amber walls, 
chairs and tables, even amber chess-boards and chess- 
men in the Amber Room. Another room at Tsars-Koe- 
Selo is the Hall of Lapis-Lazuli. Siberian mines 
furnished lapis-lazuli walls for this room, while the 
floor is of ebony, set with a mother-of-pearl mosaic 
in a flower design. The park surrounding the palace 
is beautiful, but we are chiefly interested in the black 
swans on the lake. 

Peterhof is a summer residence which was built for 



46 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



Peter the Great on the south bank of the Neva. The 
palace stands on an eminence overlooking the Gulf of 
Finland, and has as its most interesting room an 
apartment decorated for Catherine II. by an Italian 
artist. The walls are paneled with portraits of beauti- 
ful young women — 
eight hundred and 
sixty-three pictures 
— each lovely maid 
being represented in 
a different pose. 
Peterhof is celebrat- 
ed for its splendid 
fountains and water- 
works, which are 
almost equal in won- 
der to those at Ver- 
sailles in France. 

Returning in a 
troika from Peter- 
hof, we order our 
" cabby" to take us 
to a Russian restaur- 
ant. The restaurant 
has a picture sign 
showing different 
articles of food. So 

few of the Russian people can read that shops often 
have picture signs. A sign showing coats and trousers 
is at the tailor's; one showing books we see at the 
book-shop; pictures of cabbages and turnips are 
displayed at the grocer's, and pictures of knives 




A FLOOR RUBBER 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 47 

and cutlery at the hardware dealer's. Entering the 
restaurant, we find ourselves in a large room filled 
with people drinking tea from glasses. Each table has 
a samovar steaming in the center, and each tea-drinker 
has his glass filled and refilled while he munches a 
lump of sugar between sips of tea. 

The waiter serves us with stchie, the regular soup of 
the people. It is made of half -fermented cabbage, 
chopped with cold boiled mutton and flavored with 
butter, salt, barley and various herbs. The poorest 
peasants use linseed oil instead of butter. Another 
national dish served us is borsch. This is cabbage 
soup colored with beets and having other vegetables 
swimming in it. It is thickened with sour cream and 
eaten with a side dish of roasted buckwheat. A 
common beverage is kvas, made of fermented barley 
meal and honey. 

We taste a soup of cold beer in which float bits of 
meat and cucumber. Delicious white bread is set 
before us, and there is black ryebread also. The fish 
pies make our mouths water, but we do not enjoy all 
of these Russian dishes at the first trial. 

A RAILWAY JOURNEY 

All Russian railway stations are large, well-built 
structures, surrounded by grassy lawns, adorned with 
flowers. Every station building was blessed by the 
priest before it was open for use. And in every one 
is an icon with a lamp burning before it. Russians 
always kneel before the icon and cross themselves 
before buying their railroad tickets. 

We are shown to our places in the train by an official 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 49 

wearing a black uniform, high boots, astrakhan cap, 
and a silver badge on his breast showing the Russian 
double eagle. The Government owns most of the 
railroads. Our train has first, second and third class 
coaches, as good as the best in Europe, while the 
first-class sleepers are better than those one finds in 
France. In the dining-car meals are served at any 
time, always with the same queer collection of dishes. 
One could not tell from the food served whether he 
was eating breakfast, luncheon, dinner, or late supper. 

Travel is very, very slow. The stops are long and 
tedious. Often the passengers are none too clean, and it 
is disagreeable to have to be near them. Even people 
of the better classes may have soiled hands, carelessly 
kept clothing, and a look of having economized on 
soap and towels. Yet there are no pleasanter, better- 
natured people than the Russians; and we enjoy 
making their acquaintance. All seem friendly to 
Americans, for American capital and American brains 
have been freely used in developing Russian industries. 
The first railways were built by Americans, and the 
Russian engines are still built like those in our own 
country. 

We grow weary of the scenes from our car windows. 
Mile after mile we travel, seeing only monotonous 
plains, or long stretches of dreary forest, or great 
grain-fields; then more plains, more forest, more lonely 
fields. In southern Russia one could travel a week by 
railroad and see only wheat-fields. 

We pass through no cities, but see now and then 
a shabby hamlet or a village. The poor little huts 
built of logs and thatched with straw stand in a 



50 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

forlorn row on either side of a wagon road. The road 
is often a mere trail across the flat country, along 
which a peasant's cart travels with difficulty, sinking 
deep in mire or sand. The villagers about the railway 
station have coarse black hair, narrow, bead-like eyes, 
and low, furrowed brows. They wear rough clothing of 
homespun (or sheep-skin, in winter). For stockings, 
rags are tied about their legs; and sandals do duty 
for shoes. Even among the village children one 
seldom sees a bright, happy face. 

Better villages have larger izbas. (A peasant's 
house is called an izba.) There is a white church, too 
with green roof, gilded dome and glittering cross. 
Sometimes a monastery, with clustered domes and 
many crosses, is seen in the distance, its bells sounding 
clear and sweet when the train pauses. Russia is the 
land of sweet-toned bells. 

One of our fellow passengers has been the full length 
of Russia's longest railroad, the Trans-Siberian, which 
extends from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Pacific 
Ocean. A branch leads from a point near Vladivostok 
down through Manchuria to the Russian seaport of 
Dalny. It took thirteen days of constant traveling 
to make the trip by rail from Dalny to Moscow. 

Our friend tells us much of this wonderful trip 
across Siberia, of the monotonous level lands where the 
railroad points straight ahead like an arrow, while the 
lonely open steppes spread out on either side like the 
ocean; of the magnificent trains built for these long 
Trans-Siberian journeys, made up of sleeping, parlor 
and dining cars, with libraries, writing-tables, pianos, 
bathrooms with hot and cold water, and even a little 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 51 

gymnasium for people who wish to stretch themselves 
on the long runs between stops. He says that soon 
it is hoped to increase the speed of the trains so that 
the journey from Vladivostok to Moscow will take but 
eight days. 

Another important Russian railroad is the line from 
the southern shore of the Caspian Sea to Samarkand 
in central Asia, called the Trans-Caspian Railway. 

We leave the train at one of the stops, to take 
luncheon in the station restaurant. The station 
is a handsome brick building, and the restaurant is a 
delight to hungry travelers. Every dish is properly 
cooked, piping hot, and well served, while the price 
for this excellent meal is but a ruble. Such good 
things one always finds in Russian railway restaurants ! 

From here we take a carriage for a seventy-mile 
drive across the country to the estate of a Russian 
gentleman. We wish to see the farm lands. 

RUSSIA A GREAT FARM 

The Russian Empire has been called the biggest 
farm on earth. While large sections of the country 
are barren wastes and vast morasses, and millions of 
acres are left uncultivated, there are enough farm 
lands left to keep eighty million people busy tilling 
the soil. The most productive grain lands lie between 
the Baltic Ocean and the Black Sea, extending east- 
ward from Prussia and Austria to the Volga. Rye, 
wheat, barley, oats, hemp, flax, tobacco and sugar- 
beets are raised in such quantities that Russia is 
called the granary of Europe. 

The czar owns about one-third of all the land. The 



52 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

peasants own almost as much as the czar — in land 
granted them by the Government when they were 
freed from serfdom. And the nobles own a little less 
than the peasants. 

When the serfs were freed, each peasant family 
received enough land for its support, on condition 
that the Government should be paid for this land 
in yearly installments. The peasants were granted 
many years in which to pay for their little farms 
(about thirty acres for each family), and some have 
now finished these payments. But most of them are 
still struggling with their debt. No longer does each 
family own thirty acres. As the sons married, the 
farm was divided for each new family. Thus a 
peasant's farm is now but a tiny strip. 

Meantime, as the Government had paid a big price 
bo the nobles for these peasant lands, it was hoped the 
nobles would use their new-gotten wealth in improving 
their great estates. Many Russian nobles own estates 
of from fifteen to twenty thousand acres. If these 
immense farms were rightly cultivated, think how 
rich and prosperous Russia would be ! But the nobles, 
in most cases, have spent their money in foreign 
travel and luxurious living in Moscow and St. Peters- 
burg. So their lands still need enriching, and no 
money is left with which to do it. 

We learn all these facts about farms as we drive 
across the country behind a team of strong Russian 
horses, with jingling bells on their yoke. Long country 
drives in Russia are not a pleasure. This road is a 
sandy tract, into the loose soil of which our carriage 
sinks to the axle. It is like traveling through soft 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 53 

snow. Where forests border our way, we find small 
branches of trees strewn over the road to make a 
more solid foothold for the horses. 

Xow and then we come to a lazy stream (Russia 
is so nearly level that all its streams are lazy), and 
the bridge upon which we cross makes us fear an 
upset. The bridge is formed of untrimmed pine poles 
laid cross -wise upon two heavy pieces of timber. The 
poles project on either side far beyond the beams 
on which they are laid, and as no parapet guards 
the sides, a heavy carriage which failed to cross exactly 
in the middle of the bridge would tip into the stream 
below. 

Many times we cross these rude bridges, and often 
we get out and walk, when the road, with its covering 
of branches, becomes too rough. Sometimes it is 
necessary to drive over moorland or meadow, quitting 
the sandy road entirely. 

For miles on miles we toil through forests, past fields, 
across moors, and beside streams. We stay over 
night in a village inn, a poor little cabin with mud 
floors, bad odors, a group of noisy peasants drinking 
about a table, and with beds which are but hard 
bunks in a shed opening into the stable. In the night 
a pig strays into our room, while a rooster, perched 
on the foot of our bunk, wakes us with his midnight 
crowing. 

We drive all the next day. One must carry sup- 
plies with him on these wearisome rides. We have 
cushions, rugs, a basket of edibles, plates, knives, forks, 
and a teapot. A camp fire by the roadside boils 
our tea-kettle. 



54 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

At last we reach the country house of our friend. 
Although it is almost nine o'clock at night, the field 
hands are just returning from work; and it is light 
enough out of doors to read a newspaper. 

The country house is a large wooden dwelling of one 
} story, with walls vastly thick, ceilings so high that 
we feel lonely, rooms large and rather barely furnished, 
windows double to keep out the bitter winter cold 
(though now they are wide open), and stoves of 
porcelain, huge enough to warm the whole estate, 
we should imagine. 

The stoves are built into the rooms and reach 
almost to the ceiling. Our host says that they keep 
the house at an even, warm temperature during the 
coldest days in winter. Little ventilation is possible 
during cold weather because of the tight double 
windows, though one pane of glass may be opened 
a short time to purify the air. 

Every room has its icon, before which candles burn. 
On entering the room each member of the family 
bows before the icon and makes the sign of the cross. 

Russian nobles dislike country life and make no 
effort to beautify their country homes as do the 
English people. Why, they ask, should they fill 
their houses with rare furnishings, pictures and books, 
when the buildings are of wood and may soon perish 
by decay or fire? Forest fires are frequent in Russia, 
and dwellings may easily be destroyed. 

The English, who love country life, build large 
houses of stone which last for centuries. Here they 
gather treasures and live their happiest days. Rus- 
sians spend only the busy summer upon their estates. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



55 



For the winter they 
rush away to the cap- 
ital, to lose in feasting, 
gambling, and other 
foolish pleasures all 
the money their har- 
vests have brought 
them. 

An army of ser- 
vants and laborers 
dwell in villages on 
this estate. There is 
much to do : plowing, 
sowing, and reaping 
for the field laborers ; 
cheese and butter 
making in the great 
clean dairy; the pre- 
serving and drying of 
fruits both for winter 
use and for sale (for 
Russian dried and candied fruits, packed in pretty 
baskets, are largely exported to other countries); 
the making of great barrels of fermented cabbage 
for the winter's supply of cabbage soup, and the 
preparation of barrels of kvas (the fermented barley 
drink), which are stored in the large cellar beneath 
the house. 

Fuel must be cut and cloth must be spun and made 
into garments for the servants. A crowd of people 
must be fed daily in the family's dining-hall and 
that of the servants. The big brick-paved kitchen 




A RUSSIAN NURSE 



56 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

is as busy a place as a factory, for the family is large, 
there are often guests, and the house-servants fill 
long tables in their own quarters. 

We are shown a colony of out-buildings where the 
cattle and horses are housed, and the farm machinery 
is kept. On these large estates the best modern 
agricultural machinery is beginning to be used. Not 
all Russian estate owners are thriftless. Many now 
buy German or English steam thrashers, besides 
cultivators, drills, sulky plows, harrows and the like. 
American-made machinery is also used. We see that 
the mowers, reapers, rakes, and all small tools on 
this estate are of the best modern make. 

But our host says that for the most part the farm 
tools and methods of work used in Russia are as rude 
as those described in the Bible. Grain is sowed 
broadcast by hand and is thrashed in any one of 
several old-fashioned ways: either by flails, by hulling 
it by hand or foot, or by the tread of horses and cattle. 
Millions of bushels are thrashed by driving carts 
over the grain as it comes from the fields. 

The plow may be a heavy two-wheeled wooden 
plow, or a poor affair with two iron shares but no 
point, or even but a wooden stick. Of course such 
a plow merely scratches the earth, making the soil 
yield but little. 

Our host explains the cause of the frequent famines 
in certain parts of Russia. He says that the farmers 
overwork the soil. They neglect to change their 
crops from year to year, which is just as hard on the 
soil as the use of but one set of muscles year after 
year would be on the human body. In this way 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



57 



the soil is worn out. But even when the soil is good, 
the summers may often be all too short to harvest 
the crops. Too soon winter sweeps down upon the 

fields, destroy- 
ing all that the 
summer toil has 
won. 

The hardest 
field work is 
turned over to 
the peasant wo- 
men. They hoe, 
dig, spade the 
earth, and cut 
grain and hay 
with sickles and 
scythes. We see 
them bending 
low over their 
tasks, their 
faces sad and 
deeply furrowed 
with care, while 
not far away under a tree or a little covering of leafy 
boughs their babies sleep on the ground. Such ex- 
posure of tiny babies — some perhaps but a few 
davs old — often results in their death. In rural 
Russia, we learn, eight out of ten children die be- 
fore they reach ten years of age. Only the strong 
babies live, it seems. 

We see women riding astride horses, often without 
saddles. They pitch hay like men; and even girls 




TOLSTOI, THE PEASANTS' FRIEND 



58 A LITTLE JOURXEY TO RUSSIA 

do all manner of rough labor. All the women and 
girls wear short skirts. Here are some girls who 
appear very contented with their tasks. They wear 
bright red cotton skirts, some have on white chemisettes, 
and all wear aprons heavily embroidered. On their 
feet are sandals, while rags are tied on for stockings. 
Their hats are clumsy looking turbans, or perhaps 
shawls or kerchiefs knotted over the hair. 

Farm hands often work fourteen hours a day. 
Summer daylight is so long that the peasants set out 
for the fields at four o'clock in the morning, not re- 
turning until eight or nine at night. Slowly they 
plod homeward, singing some harvest chorus, perhaps. 
How much have they earned that day? If men, 
perhaps twenty-five cents. If girls, maybe but ten 
cents. 

In spite of poor tools, poor farming, low wages, and 
short summers, Russia in Europe produces 2,000,000,- 
000 bushels of grain a year. Rye, which furnishes 
the bread of the people, is the chief crop, about 
735,000,000 bushels being raised yearly. 

This estate has across it a zig-zag trail of small 
potato and cabbage gardens and tiny fields of flax 
and rye. These are the peasant lands. The Govern- 
ment granted to the freed serfs the very lands they 
dwelt upon, together with their villages, at the time 
they were freed. Often this took a zig-zag strip 
out of the best part of a noble's estate. Each peasant 
raises on his bit of land enough grain and flax to feed 
and clothe his family. 

All Russians live in villages, towns, or cities. Rus- 
sian peasants not only cling together in villages, 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 59 

but they hire out in gangs, work in groups, travel 
in groups, and if they migrate, even migrate by whole 
villages. We shall visit their villages by and by. 

Our host seems to have no neighbors. Large land- 
owners cannot have neighbors. The estates are so vast 
on account of forests, waste lands, bogs, lakes, moors, 
and immense tracts of peasant lands that a country 
noble must ride days to reach his nearest neighbor. 

Then the roads are wretched; and in winter the 
cold is so intense that a sledge ride across country 
is as much of a hardship as an arctic expedition. One 
must put on several suits of heavy clothing, bundle 
in furs, have a foot warmer, provide food and cover- 
ings against a night in the snow-drifts, and run the 
risk of being eaten by wolves. 

European Russia is said to be infested by about 
175,000 wolves. They are fierce little beasts when 
hungry, and to a sledge party making its lonely way 
across the great wastes of snow their cry brings terror. 
One hundred and fifty human beings perish annually 
from wolves. Cattle, sheep, and dogs are devoured 
by the hundred thousand on the cold plains and 
steppes. In the forests there are still some bears, 
but these are not dangerous to human life. No 
wonder, in view of all these drawbacks, that most 
Russian nobles leave their estates through the winter 
for life in the cities. 

Some old-time customs of the peasants on our 
host's estate interest us. We remember that the 
Russians are Slavs, the Slavs being a family of tribes 
which in the early centuries settled northeastern 
Europe. Slav traits often appear in these people. 



60 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

Once we discover our hostess rebuking a maid 
servant. The mistress speaks sharply, while the 
maid sinks to the ground, clinging to her mistress' skirts 
and kissing her feet. We think this a very serious 
trouble, but find that such outbursts are frequent and 
are quickly over. The foot-kissing is only a relic of 
serfdom; and the mistress' hasty temper forbodes 
no cruelty. The Russians are quick-tempered, but 
quick to forgive also. 

To one custom belonging to days of serfdom, the older 
peasant men and women still cling. When they have 
a request to make of their master and mistress, they 
come at evening to the lawn before the piazza and 
there stand humbly waiting the appearance of our 
host. He steps out upon the piazza, and the peasant, 
removing his cap and bowing low, tells his story, 
making his request. It all seems very quaint to us, 
quite as though our host were a king. 

A RUSSIAN BATH 

The Russian creed requires bathing every Saturday, 
and so the peasant is sure to be clean once a week, 
but does not devote much time to scrubbing himself 
between times. He sleeps at night in the clothes he 
wears by day, and often contents himself with a dry rub. 

And no wonder. A Russian bath is a heroic wav 
to become clean. The little Russian is first steamed 
until he is almost cooked, in a hole under the stove, 
or in one of the vapor baths to be found in all the 
villages. Then pailfuls of hot water are poured over 
him, followed by pails of ice-cold water; or else he is 
tumbled out into the snow. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 61 

Near the dwelling of our host is a bath-house. 
Russian steam baths are famous; so we decide to 
try one. The bather slips off his clothing in the 
dressing-room and enters the large bathroom, where 
an attendant dashes buckets of hot water upon him, 
one after the other, as long as he can stand it. Then 
the attendant flagellates (whips) the bather all over 
with little pine branches until the skin is blood-red. 
Next he spreads fresh pine leaves on the brick floor, 
which is really the brick roof of a furnace, and bids 
the bather stand on this, while more buckets of hot 
water are dashed upon him, the steam rising in clouds 
about him until he can hardly gasp. He is then 
taken aside and scrubbed with soap-suds and a pine 
brush, while he wonders that he has any skin left to 
be scrubbed. 

But the attendant now begins all over again, bathing, 
scrubbing and steaming him a second time, and 
finishing off by dashing buckets of cold water (not 
quite ice-cold) upon him. The cold water comes 
upon him with such force, however, that he cannot 
tell whether it is very hot or very cold. We are 
told that in winter bathers run home through snow- 
drifts, carrying most of their clothing under their 
arms. Such a bath is said to be very stimulating; 
but we are willing to do without this remarkable 
tonic for the rest of our lives. 

VILLAGE LIFE 

Because Russians will not dwell apart in solitary 
homes, but must always live near their fellow men, 
Russia is an empire of villages. We are told that 



62 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

there are 500,000 villages in European Russia alone. 
To us they all look alike, but in different parts of the 
country the huts are built of different materials. 
In the northern forest region, the houses are of logs. 
In the South they are of sun-dried brick. 

On a distant corner of our host's estate we find a 
tiny hamlet of about fifty log cabins, set among dreary 
fields. The villagers' only view is of bogs and scrubby 
pine forests. The cabins stand at irregular intervals 
along either side of the road, which here is like a 
wide, dirty street. Some cabins have a lean-to at 
the back, and one has two stories, but the rest are 
but square huts, about eight feet high from ground 
to roof, made of rough pine logs mortised at the 
corners, with the spaces between filled with moss 
and mud. The roofs are thatched with straw or 
moss. In the spring these moss-thatched roofs often 
show a thick sprinkling of wild flowers which have 
bloomed from chance seeds in the moss. 

We see no beauty of flowers now. The little garden 
patches with their cabbages and potatoes are but 
ugly little plots. The unpainted cabins are grimy 
with smoke and rain. Horses, cows, pigs, and chickens 
live under the family roof, and in winter must make 
these huts wretchedly filthy. Where the road or 
dooryards have 'miry puddles, pigs wallow freely, 
while nearly every cabin has a savage dog which 
snarls at our heels. 

Xot far from this hamlet is the church, a white- 
painted building with green-painted plank roof, and 
a spire surmounted by a cross. Of course there are 
trn tsite,o eats in this litle wooden church. We en 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 63 

first pausing to look at the rude icon which is over 
the doorway. 

The priest is within, an old man with long, flowing 
hair, tall felt hat of queer shape, and full sweeping 
robe. His life is a hard one. He must hold endless 
services, baptize babies, marry the young folk, bury 
the dead, bless the houses, the harvests, the waters, 
the coming and going, the sorrowing and rejoicing 
of every member of his flock. He is not often loved 
or respected, as we should suppose. His life is a 
lonelv one. He must be married, but if his wife 
dies, he must retire to a monastery and never marry 
again. If anything goes wrong in the village, he 
is likely to be blamed, for should he not have pre- 
vented mishaps by prayers and fasts? The villagers 
trust absolutely in his religious rites and ceremonies, 
for they are superstitious, but it is often the case that 
they care little for the priest. 

We enter a poor little hut. The floor is of mud, 
the windows are small and tightly closed, and a clutter 
of old farming tools and harness is the only furniture. 
But this is the storeroom, we find. Behind it is 
the one real room of the house. Here the family 
cooks, eats, sleeps and works. 

The chief piece of furniture is a brick stove which 
rises almost to the ceiling and fills about one-fourth 
of the room. On the top of this stove the various 
members of the family sleep in winter, lying down 
in the clothing which they wear in the daytime and 
huddling close together to keep warm. When they 
do not sleep on the stove, they sleep on the floor, or 
in bunks around the wall. 



64 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

In winter these peasants' clothing is of sheepskin 
with the wool turned inside, and as these garments 
are not changed or washed, the average peasant is 
filthy in the extreme. 

Aside from the brick stove in this hut we are visiting, 
there is scanty furniture. A table, a bench, some 
stools and a few boxes are all one sees. In one corner 
hangs an icon. This one is a picture of the Virgin. 
Beneath it a lamp burns. To keep that lamp burning, 
the peasant will save his olive oil, using for his own 
food common linseed oil. People who live in cold 
climates must have oily food of some kind. But 
the icon lamp must first be fed, in Russia. 

Now this icon is the family altar, and when one 
steps into the room he bares his head, crosses himeelf, 
and says a prayer before it. Every room in a Russian 
home is sanctified. About once a month the priest 
with two assistants enters every house in his parish, 
sprinkles the rooms with holy water, cleanses them 
with prayer, and signs them with the cross. 

If we stayed for a meal at this home we should 
sit on a bench with the family, before the rude table. 
A big bowl of cabbage soup set in the middle of the 
table is alwavs the chief dish. Into it each of us 
would dip with a wooden spoon, carrying the soup 
to his mouth. A tray of ryebread ("black bread") and 
a jug of kvas are the remaining items on the peasant's 
usual bill of fare. Smoked fish, dried herring, sour 
cabbage, and cucumbers are very much enjoyed also. 

Vodka, a strong liquor distilled from corn, is the 
drink which has always been a curse to Russian 
peasants. Every village has its drink-shop where 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 65 

this fiery liquor is sold. But lately the Government 
has undertaken to do away with intemperance by 
manufacturing a diluted vodka, which is sold now in 
certain amounts only. 

Other villages which we visit are larger, having 
from a few hundred to a thousand inhabitants. The 
homes are better, with several rooms, perhaps, and 
a comfortable living-room where before the big stone 
chimney a samovar steams, while the men-folk sit 
about it drinking glasses of hot tea, with a bottle 
of vodka to add to the cheer. 

In larger villages there is a better church, a school, 
and an inn, and at one end of the place we see a long 
building, a much larger one than the rest, which 
forms the village work-shop, or factory. The best 
dwelling in the village is sure to be the home of the 
starosta, an officer elected by his fellow villagers to 
act as chief man — a kind of mayor. The starosta 
has much power. With his council of village peasants 
about him, he lays down the law for the village. He 
can, by vote of the council, order any villager flogged, 
put out of town, or exiled to Siberia. 

But what is made in the village factory? we ask. 
A Russian friend tells us about the thriving cottage 
and village industries ot Russia. 

COTTAGE INDUSTRIES 

So small has the allowance of land for each peasant 
family now become that it will not support even a 
small family. So the peasants spend their winter 
months making articles for sale. 

Millions of Russian farm laborers spend their winters 



66 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

making shoes, shawls, lace, wooden spoons, knives, 
locks, razors, metal icons, paper-mache articles, and 
cheap toys. Every little cottage has its loom, or 
turning lathe, or work-bench. Father, mother, and 
children all work, often from five o'clock in the morning 
until nine at night. And although these Russian 
peasants are as skillful as any laboring people in the 
world, they work for the lowest pay. Goods are 
sold at so low a price in this country that if each 
of the family makes a few cents a day, he is quite 
satisfied. 

Large city firms and foreign dealers order goods 
from these cottage toilers early in the season, for 
so well are the articles made that there is a ready 
demand for them not only in Russia but also in other 
European countries and even in Asia. 

These cottage industries, as they are called, have 
trained the people in useful handicraft, have made 
them independent bread-winners, and have been the 
beginning of many little village factories, called 
cooperative associations. For these factories the 
peasants of a village club together and build a large 
shop, which they fit up with tools, machinery, looms, 
or whatever is needful for their work. Then they 
appoint a leader to get orders for them from large 
firms, and to direct their work. All winter long 
they keep at their tasks, as busy as bees in a hive. 
The leader pays all expenses and receives all the 
money. At the close of the season the profits are 
divided among the workers. 

We enter the village factory, where the villagers 
are making icons for sale, turning them out by the 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



67 



thousand. These are not the richly jeweled, gold 
and silver icons such as we saw in St. Petersburg. 
The face and hands of the saint, Virgin, or Saviour 
are crudely painted. The rest of the picture is in 
raised work of paper-mache. Sometimes the raised 
work is of brass. These pictures sell for from a few 
cents to many dollars, according to their size and 
workmanship. And they sell wherever there is a 
Greek Church, whether in Russia or in foreign lands. 

Every village in Russia is busy during the winter, 
making articles to sell at home and abroad. We see 

village factories 
where they are mak- 
ing cheap wall clocks, 
and looking-glasses, 
and where they are 
weaving silk or linen. 
Calf -skin boots are 
made by the million 
pairs. They are good 
boots, too. Leather 
is made by the vil- 
lagers, both in their 
homes and in their 
little factories. More 
than a million dol- 
lars' worth of leather 
is made in a year. 
The leather known 
as russia-leather was 
originally a specialty 
of Russia, but the 




RUSSIAN BASKET SELLER 



68 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

best russia-leather is now made in Austria. Lace 
is made by the hundred million yards. Russian 
peasants wear a great deal of coarse lace. The 
men have it on their best shirts, and the women deck 
their dresses and aprons with it. In one group of 
provinces of European Russia there are said to be 
thirty thousand people engaged in making lace. 
Every year they make over 500,000,000 yards; and 
not all of it is coarse lace. Some of the patterns are 
fine and delicate. 

With so many good workmen in these Russian 
villages, it is not strange that great factories have 
been established all over the country. Wherever 
labor is skillful and cheap, big factories are certain to 
be opened. A boy or girl who has worked in the 
home cottage from early childhood and has spent a 
few years in a village factory, is easily taught to do 
the work of a great manufacturing establishment. 

Children usually get about eight cents a day in these 
large factories. Like their elders, they must work 
long hours for this poor pay. But they have many 
holidays, for the factories must close for every fast 
and saint's day in the Greek Church. And there are 
about a dozen of these holidays for every month in 
the year. Recent laws have ordered that all large 
factories outside of towns must provide schools for 
the children, besides free hospitals, baths, and libraries 
for all their laborers. 

Russia has great natural resources. Her coal fields 
are the largest in the world. Her oil wells in the 
Baku district of the Caucasus out-yield those of the 
United States. Iron lies buried in rich deposits in 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 69 

the Ural Mountains and Siberia. With forests, grain 
fields, waters abounding in fish, the steppes of Eastern 
Russia overrun by immense herds of cattle — what 
more does Russia need to make it leap to the head as 
the chief industrial country? It has only begun to 
live as a modern, civilized, prosperous nation. Time 
to develop its resources is all that the czar's land 
needs, with more freedom for the people, more good 
schools, and better laws. 

RUSSIAN CHILD LIFE 

Our young friend Ivan (Ivan is the Russian for 
John) has a little sister named Anna. They know a 
wee bit of English, and we know a few Russian phrases. 
So we get on famously as friends. The first thing 
we notice about these Russian children is their religion. 
Each has a guardian angel, or patron saint; and to 
these saints they pray many times a day. 

Over their beds hang excellent icons of their saints. 
They believe their "Angels," as they call these saints, 
are always watching them. Ivan tells us all about his 
religious duties, and it seems to us that these must 
take up a greater part of his time. He must keep 
a light burning day and night before the icon over his 
bed. A priest has consecrated the picture by reciting 
prayers before it, and Ivan himself always kneels 
before it and makes the sign of the cross on entering 
his room. The boy was baptized when he was but 
eight days old and was confirmed in the Greek Church 
immediately after baptism. 

Baptism in the Greek Church is a long, long cere- 
mony. Sometimes it lasts several days. The baby 



70 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

is anointed with oil, signed with the cross, immersed 
three times in water, and blessed by the priest. Often 
Russian children are named in honor of their patron 
saint. 

Ivan celebrates the day dedicated to his "Angel," 
and invites us to his house for the occasion. What 
Ivan does is what every man, woman and child in 
the Greek Church is expected to do in honor of his 
own guardian angel. 

On his Angel's day Ivan does not work, but, dressed 
in his best clothes, goes to church, where he kneels 
before his Angel's shrine, touches his little head to 
the ground, says long prayers, and kisses the floor 
beneath the icon. Then he buys from the priest 
some consecrated loaves of bread to give to the poor. 
On returning home, he finds a feast spread, and all 
his friends and relatives there to help him celebrate 
the day. Everybody kisses him, and does reverence 
to the Angel's picture, and dines at the generously 
loaded table. After dinner, and a little gossip, the 
people all go home to their various tasks, only to come 
back for another hearty meal in the evening. It 
is a great day for Ivan. Anna celebrates her Angel's 
day in the same way. 

The children fast many days every year, just as do 
their parents. During Lent no butter, eggs, fish or 
meat may be eaten, and only young children may 
drink milk. There are other long fasts, before Christ- 
mas, in August, and on saints' days. Every Wednes- 
day and Friday of the whole year one must fast. Men 
folk make up for all this fasting by drinking much 
vodka, but it is hard on the children. Indeed, when 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 71 

the fasts are over, everybody eats such a quantity of 
food that often many are made sick. 

Ivan and Anna have prayers to repeat at school, 
and many of them. There are certain prayers when 
the term begins, others when the holidays come, still 
other prayers, when a new teacher is engaged, and 
others for use on the playground, in the workshop, 
the factory, and on the farm. Religion goes with 
every act of their lives. 

As in every country, the education of a Russian 
child depends upon his parents' position in life. The 
peasant girls rarely go to school. The boys go only 
in the winter when they are unable to be of help to 
their parents. 

The school buildings of the poor villages are miser- 
able huts, without ventilation. Each pupil is bound 
to bring some wood to school, to heat the building. 
When it is very cold the pupils do not go to school. 
Each family in turn boards the schoolmaster. 

In many of the villages the teachers are paid less 
than the shepherds, and are not respected or well cared 
for. They are often very ignorant themselves, and a 
great part of the time are drunk, even while in the 
schoolroom. Much of the actual teaching is done by 
the older pupils. 

School-children always wear uniforms; so do school- 
teachers. The cloth, the color, the cut, of the gar- 
ments, even the size and number of buttons on them, 
are fixed, and whether the dress is becoming or not 
to Ivan, or his sister Anna, they must wear it. 

In the poorest villages very often nobody cares 
whether the children attend school or not. Boys and 



72 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

girls idle about, or earn their own living with only a 
day now and then at school. Their uniforms get rag- 
ged, books are mislaid, school is all but closed. 

Then word reaches the village that the School In- 
spector is coming, and what a sensation there is ! All 
the brightest boys and girls are hustled off to school, 
good uniforms are borrowed from a neighboring town, 
the children are drilled in a good lesson all around, 
everything is rubbed up and made to look its best. 
The School Inspector is really delighted with his visit. 
If he suspects that all this splendor will fade as soon 
as he rides away, he gives no sign. 

But good village schools are now being opened. The 
czar is making an effort to improve the common 
schools. Besides the regular studies, children are 
learning useful occupations. Some village primary 
schools have school-gardens or fields where boys and 
girls learn modern methods of gardening and farming. 
Bee-keeping, silk-worm culture, trades and various 
handicrafts are being taught. These schools are for 
the peasants. 

Children of the aristocracy are either taught at home 
by well-trained governesses and tutors, or they attend 
the convent schools established by the government in 
the leading cities. They are taught " accomplish- 
ments " — to have fine manners, to dance, to speak 
modern languages, and to sing, play, and be fashion- 
able ladies and gentlemen. They are permitted to go 
to the theater and the opera, to take part in the carnival 
sports before Lent, and are even allowed, perhaps, to 
attend a breakfast at the palace, given by the czarina. 
The older boys who stand highest in their class are 



1a 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



73 




A RUSSIAN FAMILY OF ARCHANGEL 



taken to court receptions, to act as pages to the ladies. 
Russian children have few games and care little for 
out-door sports. They think ice-hilling great fun; 
and they are good skaters by nature. They sing well, 
and on holidays one sees them parading the village 
streets with their elders — men and boys in one line, 
women and girls in another — singing choruses. Some- 
times on holidays all the villagers sit on benches out- 



74 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

side their cabins, singing together in a great chorus. 
When several Russians are together they fill the air 
with music. The people sing at their tasks, while 
tramping to the fields, while gathering fuel in the forest, 
or while pushing their boats across lake or stream. 

The children look forward with delight to their fairs 
and festivals, of which there are many. The first of 
these is in Easter week. This is followed by the 
festival of the river nymphs. Then comes a festival 
in honor of John the Baptist; then a harvest feast, 
and George's Day, which is celebrated twice a year, 
on the 23d of April and the 26th of November. 

Later come the Christmas and New Year's festivals 
and the great Russian Carnival or Butter week, which 
ends the winter's festivals. At these fairs and festivals 
the Russians amuse themselves much as do the people 
in other parts of the world at festivals. The main 
square of the city is given up to booths where candy 
and sweetmeats are sold. There are fortune-tellers, 
and merry-go-rounds, and swings, and shows, and 
theaters, and (in winter) sleigh-drives. Clowns go 
about disguised in wigs and peasant dress, and with 
their jokes and antics add to the fun. 

The Russians are very kind-hearted and polite and 
they are fond of their children. One seldom hears a 
cross word or any quarreling among them, even in 
the great crowds at the fairs. The brothers and sisters 
of a family are devoted to one another and to their 
parents. 

The courtesy Russian children show toward their 
parents, and their consideration for older people, are 
always noticed by travelers. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 75 

CHRISTMAS IN RUSSIA 

Christmas holidays in Russia begin at sunset on 
Christmas Eve and last twelve days, until the festival 
of Epiphany. At sunset of Christmas Eve children, 
and older people, too, go about the town singing carols 
under the windows of the nobles and other great folk. 
At the head of their procession is carried a pole, on 
top of which is a bright "Star of Bethlehem." 
Showers of coins are thrown the singers from the win- 
dows, in return for their carols. Often after singing 
their songs before a house, the boys and girls enter, to 
congratulate the family on the arrival of Christmas 
and to wish them a happy New Year. This is a village 
custom. 

After the carols everyone dresses in the guise of 
sheep, oxen, and cattle, in memory of the scenes a- 
round the Christ Child's manger, and as the evening 
star appears supper is served on tables covered with 
straw. "Mumming" is a favorite frolic in country 
places. "Mummers" are mischievous young folks 
disguised as bears, goats, clowns, blind beggars, and 
thieves. They wear masks and go about to various 
homes where parties of young people are gathered, 
bursting into the room and performing all kinds of 
antics. The bears and goats dance together, the clowns 
tell stories and recite nonsense verses about those 
present, while the blind beggars (called Lazaruses) 
sing their "dismal dumps so dull and heavy," and the 
thieves pretend to have broken into the house to steal 
valuables. 

There is an uproar of merriment at such times; nor 
is "mumming" a frolic of the common people only, 



76 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



• 




CATHEDRAL AT OSTAXKINO, NEAR MOSCOW 
(Russian Droshky in Foreground) 



Even among the upper classes young people dress in 
disguise and go from house to house. 

At Christmas time the people greet one another 
with, "A happy feast to you!" And a happy feast 
it usually is. At dinner on Christmas Day is served 
a huge pyramid of rice, with raisins, blessed at the 
church. Every servant receives a useful gift, and the 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 77 

peasants on the estates generally offer gifts of em- 
broidery to the lady of the castle, and receive presents 
in return. The poor are always fed on Christmas Day. 

Santa Claus does not go to Russia. An old woman 
known as Baboushka takes his place and carries the 
children their gifts. 

Christmas trees, with their lighted candles, presents, 
and good wishes, are a part of the Christmas Eve 
celebration. On Christmas Day the churches, bril- 
liantly lighted and crowded with worshipers, hold long 
services, when the priests appear in their most gorgeous 
robes and the choirs chant their most splendid music. 

Huge bonfires are set going both on Christmas and 
New Year. Village folk in some parts of Russia save 
the sweepings from their cottages from Christmas to 
New Year, and burn them on New Year's Day at sun- 
rise in the garden. 

Large parties are held in the country houses during 
these gay holidays. The guests come in sledges from 
long distances — parents and children, and servants. 
The merrymakers wear old-time costumes, and eat old- 
time Christmas goodies, and play games handed down 
from their far-off ancestors. They play one game x 
thus : 

A bowl containing water is set on the table, while 
the players, gathering in a circle about it, throw into 
the bowl many different tokens, such as rings, earrings, 
bracelets, and brooches. The bowl is covered with a 
cloth and its contents are stirred by the eldest nurse 
in the family, while the players sing the "song of the 
salt and the bread. " Salt, bread, and charcoal have 
meantime been placed near the table, perhaps as an 



78 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

aid to the enchantment of the bowl. The "song of 
the salt and the bread" has been translated for us 
thus: 

May the bread and the salt live a hundred years — slava! 

May our emperor live still longer — slava! 

May our emperor never grow old — slava! 

May his good courser never be tired — slava! 

May his shining garments ever be new — slava! 

May his good servants always be faithful — slava! 

(Slava means "glory.") 

Each player at length draws a token from the bowl. 
From these tokens are discovered omens of the future — 
riches, a speedy marriage, a wish fulfilled, success, 
fame and the like. 

In the villages there is still much visiting from house 
to house ; while sledges are flying through the village 
streets, masked men are cutting capers, bells are tolling 
in the church towers, and sledge bells are jingling 
everywhere. The noise and bustle of it all are dis- 
tracting. 

HOW THE PEOPLE GET ABOUT 

We might not enjoy the long journeys one must 
make by sledge or carriage in Russia to get anywhere, 
but these people do not seem to mind them at all. 
In winter when the snow is deep, with a firm top crust, 
they bundle in furs and go sixty, seventy, or a hundred 
vi rs^s,* through forests, across meadows and frozen 
lakes, and over the ice of a broad river. Think of 
dashing in a sledge down a frozen river where sleighs 
are coming and going at tremendous speed, with sleigh 
bells ringing, whips snapping, and the drivers all alert 
to keep from running into the sail boats which stand 
frozen stock-still in the middle of this queer road! 

* Verxt: About two-thirds of h mile. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 79 

If there is no snow, people often travel in a tarantass. 
This is a covered cart into which one mounts by steps. 
There are no springs, for in a country of wide, wide 
steppes and forests, where a break-down may occur 
forty miles from the nearest village, the fewer springs 
there are to give way the better. Instead of being on 
springs, the tarantass rests on a raft of poles — just 
rude saplings cut and trimmed with an ax and lashed 
in a row on the axles of the two pairs of wheels. The 
body of the tarantass is roomy; so hay and straw for 
a bed are piled in; a bag of clothing, some cooking 
utensils, provisions, and an ax, hammer, or whatever 
tools are likely to be needed in case of accident. If 
a pole breaks while the vehicle is jolting over the 
rough roads, the isvoschik, or driver, cuts down a pine 
sapling, smooths off the twigs, pushes it into position 
where the broken one came from, and there you are! 

And after all, a part}' jolting along in a tarantass 
can have a pretty good time. There are stories to 
tell — stories of evil spirits, fairies, demons, and other 
queer folk; for in spite of his religion, a Russian still 
loves to believe in the wonder-world, and the common 
people are very superstitious. Then there are the 
camp fires and out-door meals on this tarantass trip; 
and there is the fun of sleeping on the hay in the bot- 
tom of the rude coach. 

Sometimes there is a village to be seen — a pretty 
village, with a gleaming river flowing past it, and a 
white church with gilt spires, and some really pictur- 
esque houses painted pink, white, or terra cotta. 
There are men and boys fishing, and women washing 
clothes along the water's edge, while sail boats raise 



80 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

their white canvas against a background of birch trees. 
Russian landscapes are not always desolate. To the 
boy or girl used to traveling over these country roads 
there is no other land so dear as Russia. These 
children would not live elsewhere if they could. 

PILGRIMAGES 

Thousands of Russians every year go on pilgrimages 
to some religious shrine. Rich and poor, high and low 
tramp over the country, through heat or cold, clad 
in coarse garb, star! in hand, begging their bread, it 
may be, as they go, glad to suffer hardship for Christ's 
sake. Most pilgrims are very poor, but to the peasants 
a pilgrim is a holy being; and they are always 
ready to give him food, shelter, and perhaps some coins 
to carry to the shrine. 

Often we meet bands of these pilgrims. They are 
tramping to Novgorod (south of St. Petersburg), or 
to Kief (in Poland), or to Palestine, or to the mon- 
astery of Solovetsk. To visit Palestine is the chief est 
joy of a Russian pilgrim. Xext in honor is a trip to 
Solovetsk. 

Solovetsk is the largest of a group of little islands 
in the White Sea — the Frozen Sea, as sailors call this 
icy body of water. Monks dwell on all these little 
islets, which are known as the Holy Isles. The mon- 
astery itself is on Solovetsk, a famous old shrine to 
which Russian pilgrims go by thousands every summer, 
often tramping one or two thousand miles to reach the 
holy place. 

We go to Archangel and from there cross to Solovetsk 
in a boat manned by monks. What a queer voyage! 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



81 



The captain is a monk, in monk's hood and gown; the 
pilot is a monk; all the officers and crew are monks. 
The passengers are all pilgrims bound for the Holy 




THE SHRINE IN A RUSSIAN CATHEDRAL 



Isles. They are mostly solemn-faced folk, clad in 
sheepskin, rags, or some fantastic garb. Some are 
lame; some deformed; some blind; some beggars. 
Some have money and have traveled in comfort; 



82 . A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

others are without a penny. One man is a pilgrim 
for life, vowed to spend all his time walking from shrine 
to shrine. 

There is much praying on board, and prostrating of 
bodies, and psalm-singing. A heavy gale strikes our 
boat, and the crew sing psalms while they work. The 
crews of boats passing us kneel with uncovered heads 
to receive our blessing. 

The monastery walls rise from the holy isle and show 
their towers far out at sea. Drawing near, we behold 
rising above the walls gold crosses, churches, spires, 
and domes, like the clustered roofs of a city. There 
are buildings and buildings — cathedrals, shrines, cells, 
chapels, refectories, a prison, a palace, and all the 
workshops of the monks. 

We find the monastery crowded with pilgrims. We 
are lodged in the Guest House outside the walls, where 
the women pilgrims also must stay. Women are not 
permitted to dwell on the isle of Solovetsk. During 
the pilgrim season (from June to August) they may 
come here to pray, may eat in the refectory, and lodge 
in the Guest House, but when the summer ends the 
monastery is closed to them. They are forbidden to 
enter some of the more holy chapels, and may never 
remain within the walls after nine o'clock at night. 
The Greek Church gives its best to men. 

No monk of Solovetsk leads an idle life. All in- 
mates of the monastery must both work and pray. 
During the pilgrim season much of the time is spent 
in prayer. The pilgrim's day begins at two o'clock in 
the morning with early matins. From then on until 
noon there is one long service after another in the 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 83 

cathedrals, with prayers at the tombs of saints, and 
visits to holy spots on the island. A light dinner is 
followed by more services, until the eight o'clock supper, 
after which everybody goes to his cell, where he is 
expected to read the life of some saint until he goes 
to sleep. 

The pilgrims vie with one another in all this 
fasting, praying, bathing in holy lakes, kissing the 
stones of holy tombs, and bowing their heads upon 
church floors. 

But the monks have workshops as well as cells for 
prayer. They make things to sell — bread, clothing, 
rosaries, spoons, and what not. There is a model 
bake-house, where they make white and rye bread, 
and also consecrated loaves stamped with a cross and 
blessed by the priest, People from all parts of the 
coast come by boat to buy these loaves. 

The monks make famous kvas in their brewery, 
and they carve platters, make baskets, take photo- 
graphs, make icons, sew sealskin caps (seals frequent 
these isles), paint pictures, tan leather, knit, dry fruit, 
spin thread, build carts and sledges, quarry stone, fell 
and trim trees, even build boats. 

It is hard to tell what they do not do. In 
their little shops there is a hum of labor from dawn 
to dark. 

We find the monastery of Solovetsk a place so full 
of interest that we half wish we were monks. But we 
remember what winter must be on these far northern 
islands, and rejoice, after all, in our freedom. We 
should not like to be imprisoned by ice for eight or 
nine months every year 



84 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

MOSCOW 

Moscow, the second capital of the Russian Empire, 
lies four hundred miles southeast of St. Petersburg. 
The railway between the two capitals is almost a 
straight line. As we approach the Holy Cit}^ (as the 
peasants call it) we look with surprise upon the crowd 
of many-colored domes and spires. " Mother Moscow " 
must have nothing but churches, we say. Now we 
understand why it is called the sacred city. 

But Moscow is more than a citv of churches. It is 
the most gorgeously colored city of Europe, the most 
Russian city of the empire. St. Petersburg is a copy 
of other European capitals. Moscow is the quaint old 
Russian capital. It has a tragic history. It has been 
sacked by Tartars, and burned, and rebuilt, and ruled 
by some of the cruelest monarchs the world has known. 
Its kremlin (or citadel) encloses curious old towers, 
palaces, cathedrals, monasteries, and chapels which 
have passed through centuries of strange experiences. 
Many of its shops look now just as they looked cen- 
turies ago. Its old whitewashed buildings, its four 
hundred and fifty churches with domes of red, blue, 
green and gold, its splendid palaces, its hovels, its 
rough stone pavements, make it a city to delight 
travelers from every part of the world. 

The Russians in Moscow are the real old-time Rus- 
sians. They are not like the Europeanized Russians 
of St. Petersburg. Besides, there dwell here many 
strange-looking subjects of the czar: Tartars from the 
Volga region, Tartars of the Crimea, Calmucks and 
Circassins, and silent, strange people in robes and tur- 
bans, from Asiatic provinces. Moscow lies farther 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



85 



east than Jerusalem. We call it oriental. Oriental 
cities are sure to be a jumble of color, filth, squalor, 
splendor, and richness. 

The city lies on both sides of the river Moskva. It 
has a population of one million, and is the greatest 
manufacturing city of Russia. Railways enter here 




THE KREMLIN FROM MOSKVA REKOI BRIDGE 



from every part of the empire. Over six million 
passengers enter or leave Moscow yearly. One-sixth 
of all the goods shipped on Russian railways load or 
unload here. From a magnificent railway station in 
one part of the city the Trans-Siberian trains start on 
their long journey to Dalny and Vladivostok. Over 



A LITTLE JOURXKY TO RUSS 

the entrance to this immense whit* 1 - ion are the 

rds. in letters of ligh* Save the Czar." Truly, 

Moscow is the heart of the st enipire. 

And the heart of Moscow is the kremlin. The word 
kremlin : i to mean fortress, or central official 

quarter. The high walls of the kremlin are pyramid- 
shaped and are built of pinkish colored brick. They 
enclose a triangle, one side of the wall being along the 
river bank. Great square watch towers rise here and 
there along the walls: and five gates give entrance to 
this fine old fortres- 

When Xapoleon invaded Russia with an army of 
five hundred thousand men. the Ross - - ire to 
- he French drew near their holy city. The 
invaders could no* - in a burning city: neither 
could th- rther into this bleak country, 

for the winter had set in with great severity. They 
began a retreat. This retreat of the French from 
Moscow was one of the most terrible marches ever 
made by an army. Cold, famine, dise nd weari- 

ness beset the soldiers. But. wo> il. th^ 
assailed them at every point along their route, killing 
thousands and capturing many prisoners Jy about 

twenty-five thousand French out of th^ _ * invading 
army left R s 

We are shown many memorials oleon within 

the kremlin. At this gate he entered: in this square 

e the cannons captured from his army — three hun- 
dred and sixty-five cannon! Here he dwelt, here h 
horses were stabled: and here his soldiers ravaged 
church and palace. 

We ascend to the top of the Tower of Ivan, a lof~ 




TOWER OF IVAN VELIKE, AND THE 
GREAT BELL 



88 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

tower which is the first prominent structure to catch 
our eyes. Its five stories are capped by a golden dome 
with a cross on top. This is a bell tower in which 
hang thirty-six bells, two being of silver, and the 
largest weighing sixty-four tons. From the summit 
of this ancient bell tower the view of Moscow is one 
of great beauty. 

At the foot of the Ivan Tower is the famous bell 
which has room within it for forty people. It is 
twenty-four feet high and weighs two hundred tons. 
It is broken, but how this happened is not certain. 
Many different tales account for the accident. The 
opening in its side is large enough for a man to walk 
through. 

The palace, "The Great Palace," of the kremlin is 
full of rich apartments. Seven hundred rooms are 
crowded with art treasures and magnificent furnishings. 
In the treasury one sees coronation robes, czar's jewels, 
crowns, scepters, and insignia, canopies of velvet and 
gold, and thrones set with thousands of precious stones. 

One enters the Cathedral of the Assumption with 
especial interest in the little whitewashed church. 
The exterior of the cathedral is shabby, but within 
the church is adorned with gold, silver, and precious 
stones worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Here 
are tombs of priests and princes; and sacred pictures 
of greatest value. In this cathedral the czar crowns 
himself; and, having placed the crown upon his own 
brow, crowns the czarina. When Nicholas II. per- 
formed this ceremony in 1896, the coronation scene 
was said to be the most magnificent the world has 
ever behold. Says a t raveler who was present : 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



89 



" In the hol- 
iest spot of the 
Holy City, 
amid all the 
pomp of the 
living and all 
the solemnity 
of the dead, 
surrounded by 
the royalty of 
the world, 
while bells 
clash and can- 
non roar and 
multitudes 
throng with- 
out, he [the 
czar] crowns 
and conse- 
crates himself 
Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias." The 
Cathedral of the Archangel Michael is the burial 
place of all the Russian royal family of two dynasties, 
until the time of Peter the Great. At different points 
in the Kremlin we are shown memorials of several 
famous czars. Who were the great ones among these 
rulers? Let us make a list, thus: 

Vladimir, who introduced Christianity into Russia. 

Ivan the Third, called the Great, who first took 
the title of czar. 

Ivan the Fourth, called the Terrible, a monster of 
cruelty, who was yet an able ruler. 




NEAR VIEW OF THE GREAT BELL 



90 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

Peter the Great, of whom we have heard so much 
at St. Petersburg. 

Catherine II., an empress who ruled Russia with 
wonderful ability. 

Alexander II., the emancipator of the serfs. 

There are other rulers who have done much for 
Russia, but these are the most illustrious in a long 
list of monarchs. 

We leave the kremlin by the Gate of the Redeemer. 
Over this gate is a sacred picture of the Redeemer, 
with the consecrated oil always burning beneath it. 
Overyone must bare his head when passing through 
this gate. The people of the Greek Church also cross 
themselves here. Sentries always posted at this gate 
warn travelers not to fail in this custom of uncovering 
the head. 

Just without the Redeemer Gate is an open square 
called the Red Place, where two hundred years ago 
public punishments were executed. At one end of 
the Red Place stands the Church of St. Basil. St. 
Basil was an imbecile, a poor idiot beggar who thought 
himself a prophet and miracle-worker. So the people 
honored him as a holy man, for Russians are easily 
imposed upon, and when St. Basil died, Ivan the Ter- 
rible had a church built over his grave. It was to be 
a great church; and it certainly is of great size. 

Ivan the Terrible was pleased with the building, 
so different was it from anvthing the world had ever I 
seen in the way of churches. It is said that he sent 
for the architect and asked him if he could build another 
church like it. The architect declared he was certain 
that ho could. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



91 




CATHEDRAL OF ST. BASIL, THE BEATIFIED 



Thereupon Ivan ordered that the architect's eyes 
be put out with red-hot irons, for he wished St. Basil's 
to be the only church of its kind! This story is not 
believed by everybody, however. 

The church has eleven domes, each of different shape 
and different color. Such a mixture of forms and a 
jumble of reds, blues, golds, greens, and yellows could 
not be found in any other sacred building. Inside 



92 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

are eleven chapels dedicated to eleven saints. In 
the Tretiakoff Gallery we see a fine collection of 
paintings by Russian artists. We visit the libraries 
and museums and enjoy a morning in the Foundlings 
Hospital. This is a important institution, supported 
by the Government, for the care of destitute babies. 
Some thirteen thousand babies are admitted here each 
year. Hundreds of nurses care for these tiny charges. 
We shop in the handsome new Gostinnoi Dvor (the 
marketplace), which is built in the same style of archi- 
tecture as the kremlin. We ride over the rough pave- 
ments to the promenades and pleasure grounds of 
Moscow, and we wander about quaint old streets 
where pedlers and foreign-looking shopkeepers, and 
quaint ly dressed peasants remind us of the Midway at 
our Chicago World's Fair. 

The climate in Moscow and in other parts of Russia 
is nearly as trying in summer as it is in winter. The 
heat is almost intolerable during the short summer, 
and clouds of dust are everywhere. The people al- 
most live in the streets at this time. Men go around 
with odd little carts full of queer wooden jars, selling 
all kinds of cooling drinks. 

When we enter the restaurants we are waited 
upon by men in white shirts that look like night shirts. 
The peasants in the streets wear red shirts, and their 
trousers are tucked into high boots. They love bright 
colors, and their clothes look odd to us. They part 
their hair in the middle and have it cut straight all 
around. 

We see groups of prisoners setting out for the Siberian 
mines, exiles for life. We are glad that the czar is 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



93 



now planning to abolish the exile system. Siberia 
has so long b6en but a prison for Russian evil-doers 
that it is now a country where honest folk dislike to 
live — indeed, cannot live in safety. 

From Moscow distinguished travelers often make a 
trip to the country estate of Count Tolstoi, which is 
seven miles from the neighboring town of Tula. Count 




PALACE OF PETROSSKY 



Tolstoi is a Russian novelist and philosopher. He is 
considered the greatest living man of letters in the 
world to-day. His desire has been to help the Russian 
peasants. He, himself a rich man, for years lived 
the life of a peasant, dressing, eating, and working as 
did the laborers on his estate. 

Through his efforts there have been established in 



94 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

Moscow printing houses for publishing millions of cheap 
books each year for the peasantry. The best pictures 
are printed, too, at a small cost, and are circulated 
among the poor. There is no more interesting char- 
acter in Russia than Tolstoi, the peasants' friend. 

THE VOLGA RIVER 

The Volga is the longest river in Europe. Rising 
in the Valdai Hills, it makes its way southward, past 
many an ancient town, to the Caspian Sea, into which 
it flows, by seventy different mouths, near the sea- 
port of Astrakhan. Its basin is about seven hundred 
thousand square miles in extent, for ts tributaries ex- 
tend to the far limits of the empire. The Volga has 
been called the Russian Mississippi. 

The river is navigable from its source, and, with 
its tributaries and the many canals connecting with 
it. forms the great highway of Russia. A system 
of canals unites it with the Black Sea, the Baltic, 
and the " Frozen Sea." Its chief tributary on the 
west is the Oka. At the junction of the Oka with 
the Volga is the town of Xijni Xovgorod, which lies 
about two hundred and fifty miles east of Moscow. 
• For nearly ninety years Xijni Xovgorod has held 
a great national fair every July and August. While all 
European countries once held these fairs, Russia is 
now the only country in which they are still to be 
seen. The Xijni Xovgorod fair attracts a multitude 
of people from Russia, Asia, and, indeed, from our 
own continent. The town has a population of about 
95,000, but in fair time the number swells to 250,000. 

The fair is a surburban town bv itself. An im- 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



95 



mense space beside the rivers is laid out in passages 
or streets along which shops, booths, and other build- 
ings are erected. Flags fly from the buildings, people 
of every nationality are among the buyers, and shop- 
men speak the tongues of many lands. Here are 
sold silks, jewels, linen, cotton, and woolen goods, 




NIJNI NOVGOROD-FROM THE RAMPARTS 



antique rugs, priceless shawls, and quaint curios. 
One may buy leather goods, metal wares, porcelain, 
teas, coffees, wines and fruits. 

There is an electric tramway, a semicircular canal, 
a circus, a theater, floating bridges, and underground 
galleries, with many a pleasure booth, whence music 
and laughter sound. We find even a temperance 



96 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

tea-shop among the many odd little restaurant^ 
On the boat which takes us down the Volga t 
crowds of people who have visited the fair. Sever. 
Americans are among the passengers. It is har< 
to travel in any part of the world and not meet ou* 
countrymen. We Americans are appropriately called 
" globe trotters/' 

About four miles from the left bank of the Volga, 
as we steam down stream, is the ancient city of Kazan, 
which the Russians captured from the Tartars, 
picture of the Virgin was carried at the head of the Rus 
sian attacking army, the very picture which we saw 
in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan at St. Peters 
burg. Kazan is a strongly fortified old city, ana 
has a university famed as a seat of oriental learni^ 
The largest Russian university is at Moscow. TL 
are other important ones at St. Petersburg, Odessa 
Warsaw, and Helsingfors in Finland. 

Because the Volga overflows its banks every spring, 
few towns are built directly on its shores. Ii 
autumn the river is so low that steamers 
are grounded on mud banks or sand bars, 
the spring a flood spreads over the low lands. 

Astrakhan is on a high island in the river, abou 
thirty miles from the Caspian. The city is connected 
by bridges with both river banks. The name of this 
seaport is derived from that of an article largely ex- 
ported from here. Astrakhan is the curly wool of young 
lambs of a variety of sheep found in Persia and Syria. 
The finest astrakhan is almost priceless. The stur- 
geon fisheries of the Volga are very important, and 
form a leading industry of the city of Astrakhan. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 97 

POLAND AND FINLAND 

.Poland was once an independent and powerful 

kingdom, with its capital first at Cracow and later 

<at Warsaw. But the name is all that now remains 

rof this once prosperous kingdom. The country is 

but a province in the czar's empire. Russian soldiers 

hold its citadels, and the Russian language is used 

in all its schools. In the reign of Catherine II. of 

Russia, three powerful nations (Russia, Austria, and 

'Prussia) took possession of Poland and divided 

it among themselves. Two other partitions took 

place in later years, until the nation was deprived 

of all power and yielded itself hopelessly to its 

'captors. 

We remember one brave Pole, Kosciusko, who 
.ped us in our Revolutionary War; he came to 
^America and offered his services to Washington at a 
time when our little army sorely needed help. Kos- 
ciusko later led his own people in an uprising against 
rRussians and was twice victorious, but Prussia 
to Russia's aid, and Kosciusko was defeated 
ven prisoner. 

11 ht Poles are patriotic to the last drop of their 
oiood. They have risen against their Russian con- 
querors several times; but only to be defeated. They 
are a proud and brave people, highly educated, gifted 
in music, letters, and art; and the women are famed 
for their beauty, especially the women of Warsaw. 
Warsaw stands on the heights above the Vistula 
River, its chief objects of interest being the fortress, 
the ancient cathedral, the citadel which stands on 
a hill in the center of the city, and the many public 



98 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



palaces, fine residences, beautiful squares, avenues, 
and pleasure grounds. 

Railways connect this city with Vienna, Moscow, 
St. Petersburg, Dantzic, and Berlin. .The Jews have 
made it a commercial center of importance. Among 




HARBOR OF HELSINGFORS 
(Russian Cathedral in the Distance) 



the Poles it is an important literary, musical and 
dramatic center. One sees famous actors in Warsaw 
theaters and hears the best singers and pianists at 
the concert halls. The population is over half a million. 
The national religion of Poland is the Roman Catholic. 
Finland is a prosperous, progressive little coun- 






A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 99 

try, where everything is up to date, spick and 
span, and substantial. The Finns are Lutherans, 
since they were ruled by the Swedes until 1809. At 
that time Russia became master of Finland, and ever 
since there have been efforts to Russianize the Finns. 
The present czar makes them learn the Russian lan- 
guage and wishes to take from them their right to 
rule themselves, for they have hitherto enjoyed "home 
rule." They kept their old laws and liberties, had 
their own parliament, and were looked upon as the 
freest people in the czar's land. 

Finland is called the "land of a thousand lakes." 
It is a lovely country, with its islet-dotted lakes, 
its woods of fir and pines, and its picturesque towns 
and villages always swept and garnished as though 
for a festival. There are excellent roads everywhere, 
many miles of railroads, telephones all over the country, 
telegraph lines, electric lights and tramways, arid 
the best of schools. 

We see the people always busy — the men at work 
on their, farms, or fishing, or driving carts full of pro- 
duce to market; the women spinning, weaving and 
churning, and busy in many other ways. 

Finland is a country of fishermaids as well as fisher- 
men, and the girls often go out with their fathers and 
brothers in the stout little fishing smacks. Often 
a whole family makes its home upon the water for 
weeks or months of each year. Almost every farmer 
has his fishing-boat. 

The peasant women when at work seldom wear 
shoes or stockings, and we never see them in hats or 
bonnets. They wear aprons of white striped with red 



100 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 



and blue, and upon their heads are snowy kerchiefs. 
We visit a Finnish peasant home and find it a much 
pleasanter place than most of the poor homes seen in 

Russia proper. The 
house is built of 
wocd — low, and with 
narrow windows and 
latched door. In 
one corner is an open 
fireplace in which 
burns a cheerful fire. 
Near the center of 
the room is a table 
upon which the 
housewife is placing 
the dinner. From 
poles suspended from 
the rafters hang cir- 
cular loaves of dry, 
hard black bread 
and dried fish. 

Xear the fire the 
husband sits mend- 
ing a fish-net, and 
by the window a 
little girl is reading. The common people of Fin- 
land are much better educated than those of other 
parts of the czar's domains. The people value edu- 
cation highly, and there are very few among even the 
peasants who cannot read and write. 

Helsingfors, the capital of Finland, is a clean, busy, 
thriving city of over fifty thousand inhabitants. Its 




FINNISH MILKMAID 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 101 

university is the oldest in Russia. Its church of 
St. Nicholas, with a lofty dome which may be seen 
far out at sea, will hold three thousand people. 
We see the parliament house, the libraries and muse- 
ums, and learn something about Finnish art and 
literature. Finland is a land of music. The summer 
music festivals here bring thousands of people to 
enjoy the splendid choral singing. 

Finland is famous for its strawberries. At the 
market in Helsingfors we buy pretty birch-bark baskets 
of this delicious fruit, from Finnish peasant women 
who wear kerchiefs over their heads, and queer loose 
bodices, and quaint aprons. 

HOMEWARD BOUND 

And now with a last glance eastward over the Gulf 
of Finland, toward the czar's capital and the fortress 
of Kronstadt which guards his western shores, we 
sail away across the Baltic, homeward bound. The 
Russian Empire lies behind us. 

Russia is a country of contradictions . She is called the 
youngest nation of Europe, and is looked upon as really 
younger than the United States; but in 1862 at Novgo- 
rod was celebrated the one thousandth anniversary 
of the founding of the empire. Again, Russia, though a 
despotism, has for her chief friend and ally the Republic 
of France. Russia declares that all religions are 
tolerated within her borders; yet Jews, Roman Catho- 
lics, and Stindists (Baptists) are often bitterly per- 
secuted in this country. 

Russia is called the granary of Europe, and she 
has the greatest farms in the world; yet famines often 



102 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 

occur there. She has the largest lakes and rivers, 
an extensive canal system, and the longest railv 
in the world: yet her vast natural resources cannot 
be developed because she lacks transportation! She 
has rich mineral deposits, boundless forests, and 
valuable fisheries, especially the seal fisheries of the 
Arctic coast;. yet the Government is heavily in debt 
and much of the money needed to start manufactories 
has to come from England. Germany, or America. 

Russia has the largest oil wells of Europe. In fact, 
everything about Russia seems to be the "largest." 
Very likely she has the largest number of people who 
can neither read nor write. That is because they 
have not good free schools as we have. But Russian 
statesmen, artists, authors, and soldiers are among 
the most eminent men of the day. Our daily papers 
are full of their achievements. Many thoughtful 
persons predict that Russia will be the great nation. 
Russians the great race, of future history. 



A Little Extra Reading Matter 



Little Journeys 

Splendid Supplementary Reading for every School, 
reliable and helpful supplementary reading. 



Interesting, 



Twenty=two books. Each tells of the habits, customs, dress, 
conditions, etc., of the people. Each book about 96 pages. Shows the 
flag of the country in colors; map of the country in colors. From twenty- 
five to forty illustrations; and in paper editions, the national song, words 
and music, directions for holding an entertainment on the country visited 
or studied, etc. The reading matter is interesting and enjoyed by pupils 
and parents, as well as teachers. 

The following countries have been visited : 



Cuba 

Porto Rico 
Hawaii 
Philippines 
China 
Japan 
Mexico 
Alaska 
Canada 
Australia 
v Ireland 
Russia 



London and Liverpool 

England 

Scotland 

Italy 

France 

Holland 

Belgium and Denmark 

Switzerland 

Spain and Portugal 

North Germany 

South Germany 

Norway and Sweden 



Price, 15 cents each; the entire set, $$. 25. The entire set contains 
over 2,400 pages. 

These may also be had in cloth editions. Two countries in one 
50 cents each. 



A, FLANAGAN CO., CHICAGO 



!>;AT H l»Uf 



CURRENT NEW5 



Teachers can use the ordinary daily or weekly papers 
in the way of obtaining information on current events, but 
much of the matter in them is unreliable on account of 
haste, bias, politics, desire for notoriety, etc. It is being 
used by other teachers in thousands of schools. 



OUR TIMES 

A monthly illustrated magazine of important world events, dis- 
coveries and people. Large clear type, good print and paper, and 
many illustrations. 

WHAT IT IS 

It is a record of the current history of the world; it gives all the news 
of general interest that is worth while knowing; tells of Notable People, 
Events, Inventions, Discoveries; tells what leading minds are thinking and 
saying — tells both sides. 

WHAT IT DOES NOT CONTAIN 

It omits all reference to the "sensational" news — murders, 
suicides, scandals, executions, etc., — the things no one wants to 
remember, and which young people, especially, are better off not 
to read about . 

ITS USC IN SCHOOL 

In the study of geography its intelligent use greatly increases 
the interest, and wonderfully helps the memory. The earth becomes 
"alive" instead of a collection of hard names and meaningless boun- 
daries. History, too, and the sciences also become touched with 
"life" by their connection with related topics of today. 

Nothing in school study is more generally interesting, more 
stimulating to thought, than the study of current events, and the 
discussion, in a natural way, of topics before the public. It helps the 
teacher as well as the pupil. 

A Boy's Words.— JOSEPH G. LAWRENCE, of Brooklyn: "I have 
read Our Times for four years and my father says I know more about what is 
going on in the world than he does, and he has two daily papers. I like to read 
it because I find something conclusive about Korea, Panama, Alaska, Cuba, 
Japan, Russia, and other countries that are talked about so much. My mother 
likes the paper and asks for it. At school I tell the class something from it 
when my teacher asks." 

You need this little paper. Your pupils need it. Monthly. 32 
large pages. 50c. per year. Two or more copies to one or separate 
addresses only 40c. per year. 



G 



FLANAGAN COMPANY : CHICAGO 



) 



G. P. Mar., '05 



Price, 15 Cents 



I ' .j .. ■ *■■■■ 



*ssm 






Illustrated. 



• ., , 



1 II MW 





P?^ 












/^J Bwflv IV^ . i) J\mmW\ * 


HIP 

m l 






~~ mm ^^^^^f* 






P/'AH7Tk '^'iV'tl 








w "^Bt' » «4d Z 




iW 'X* 


HI 




f ''' 


m^kf- i -, y ^ 




I M 




\Sjs, : 




'' r-^fcJ?*?* 1 ■ "" 


1 H 








1 tBBW* 






EHHjl&frai 


. ■ 




■ Mx* 

■mm ' 






^ '*■";■ 1 ft!}.--" 


■ 




... 














»t 1 v ■ 










a 




RUSSIA 






JN M. GEORGE, Editor, 



;. »/l> ■■■ •S.** < V* 



^--'•- 



FLANAGAN CO.. Publishers. 



HISTORY 



r e gf^t^fi^s in iB^j^^^Wth ancient and" intern 
the &Httttvi^ | a^ ^ ' 



ites History 




tches in 



i, for years in the Iowa Normal School. Th< 
"♦'.ines in U. S. History published. The outlines 
md '.are. :an aid* in ^adyfejg^^h^'sabject frqxS. I 

iay be used for all classes. K inery thousand copies 




cs in Ancient, Mediaeval and 

:pared fox the use of teachers and pupils pursuing 

te topical method. An attempt has been made to 

t I i on in ffe£ fztse st ate me nc * , e^p^cka^ 6u poijiis 

-b<*oki. - ♦Qoth i ; ) »S6^>ai»e$. I Price, 'XSrCenis.^jj^s 

>ttons v iiV Ar&Qtifetti£'. H i s t ory 

ire carefully graded. Second— They are arranged 

?4 into groups of ten questions. Third There 

ing every conceivable point. Fourth— The cfues- 
ans'wersi Roth in arrangement and matter, t&e 

Uhcr similar books. The books are excellent as 
subjects. 125 pages each; limp cloth covers. 



i story Out line Map s 

United States, the I&stern States, ''.the \New 
1 e S ta t es . v *jajl tiie !f5outDcsrii ^ffeteilLt >' ^*$$y>l£* 
peasi&v iff ; £»njj-$ .^ianairies of treaties. location* 
no. grants, territorial claims, territorial jro-wtli, 



*c. 



11 Mi:t;, 



latgifiR. I ihe] 
>t less than t 



he*vy 
















= 

> 



^ 












d 
















vV ^ 



\ 












V 



: 



• 



























n j 
















v 



\ 



V V 



' 












% 












I 










































^ 









, 















a\ 






■ 






\T 















<> 



' o 

V 















■ 















, 















v> 




























4H9 S8B REiH 



